‘Virat sees things as they are, Rohit reads the game very well’: Ex-NZ all-rounder compares former and current captain
The upcoming T20 World Cup, which gets underway from Sunday, will be Rohit's first as India captain and fans, who had last witnessed MS Dhoni lead the Men In Blue to a world title, will hope for the drought to end.
Team India had a spectacular run under the leadership of Virat Kohli. They attained the number one position in Tests, secured a historic Test series win against Australia at their own backyard. Under Kohli, the Indian unit adapted to a brand of fearless cricket, which in return saw them become one of the formidable teams in the world.
However, one thing missing from Kohli's rich CV was an ICC world title. The team did manage to reach the finals on few occasions, but failed to deliver when it mattered the most. The previous edition of the T20 World Cup was Kohli's last stint as India captain and the baton was then passed to Rohit Sharma, who by then had led his franchise Mumbai Indians to five Indian Premier League titles.
The upcoming T20 World Cup, which gets underway from Sunday, will be Rohit's first as India captain and fans, who had last witnessed MS Dhoni lead the Men In Blue to a world title, will hope for the drought to end.
Speaking on similar lines, former New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson, who has featured under the captaincy of both Rohit and Kohli compared their methods. Anderson claimed Kohli to be a more instinctive skipper, taking decisions depending on the current scenario, while Rohit to be more involved in board room meetings.
“They’ve probably got slightly different ways of doing it. I think Virat is more on the field, he kind of sees things as they are and then goes by that. Rohit’s kind of involved in a lot of those meetings, and I think he reads the game very, very well. I think he’s sort of just very proactive around how he does things. He kind of backs himself and because I said he’s proactive, he’ll make an opportunity and he’ll go with it. Whether it works or not, it’s a different question, he backs it and backs his bowlers to go and do it as well. We’ve seen with the Mumbai Indians team how well he’s led that team over many, many years," said the former New Zealand cricketer in an interview to News 18.
Mumbai won five IPL trophies under Rohit's leadership, but Kohli failed to deliver even one to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) before relinquishing captaincy. However, Anderson feels Rohit had the luxury of star players, who were a consistent figure in the Mumbai setup, which Kohli's RCB lacked, thus pointing it as one of the possible reasons behind the difference in silverwares.
“He’s had some very, very good players in those positions to be able to rely on as well. And I think sometimes the captaincy can come down to that as well, the personnel you’ve got. And if you’ve got bankers like they did had Hardik and they have Bumrah obviously and things like that, it makes it a little bit easier to be able to kind of go back to those guys, stick to a plan and know that they’re probably gonna deliver more odds and not.
"Virat probably had a little bit of fluctuation between personnel with Bangalore and things like that. It makes it probably a little bit harder to have. It’s a consistent plan to go to as well, but I think they’re very good captains in their own," he added.
“But obviously I played a little bit more under Rohit, so I got to probably see him a little bit more and see how he worked as well. So yeah, I think they’re both very good captains."