"You cannot always get what you want" - Rohit Sharma opines on the timing of his captaincy

India captain Rohit Sharma showed his satisfaction with the timing of his Indian captaincy when he was asked about his preference for getting it in his career when he was at his peak rather than the latter stages as well. However, he took over as full-time Indian captaincy across formats last year, leading them to be on top of the ICC rankings in all formats as well.

However, he already become the second most wins as Indian captain in T20Is with 39 wins in 51 matches as well. He has also 29 combined wins in Tests and ODIs in his name as well. The veteran also led India to the semifinals of the T20 World Cup last year and the 2021-23 World Test Championship (WTC) final as well. While speaking to the Indian Express on the timing of his captaincy, Rohit Sharma said that it may have been a blessing in disguise to be experienced when handed the captaincy duties.

“That’s life. I got it now and I am grateful for it. I would rather have it when I know how to captain a team, when I know what is required and all. Rather than when I don’t know the ABCD of captaincy. So in that respect, this is good,” he said. “Just look at the names that are missed out – Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag. These are all stalwarts of Indian cricket. Not to forget Yuvraj Singh. He never captained India. Yuvraj has been such a match winner for India, he should have been the captain at some stage but he didn’t get it.”

However, Rohit Sharma stated leading the Indian team at the prime of his career would have been better but he felt it was only fair for him to wait for his turn behind the legendary MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli as well.

“Obviously, you want to be at your peak for this, say when you are 26-27. But you cannot always get what you want. You are talking about the Indian captaincy and there have been stalwarts in the Indian team. Many more players deserved to be the captain of the team. I had to wait for my turn and that’s absolutely fair enough. The guys before, Virat was before me, so was MS (Dhoni),” he shared.

“We don’t want any of our pacers to break down” – Rohit Sharma

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma also said that managing the workload and fitness of the pace bowlers will be the biggest challenge for them in the upcoming World Cup at home as well. While Jasprit Bumrah is coming from a long injury layoff with a back injury, pace-bowling all-rounder Hardik Pandya has also been out of action with several injuries over his career as well.

“A team needs to play 11 games to reach the World Cup final. Last time we played this format was in 2019, but to play 11 ODIs in one-and-half months is not easy. It’s a long World Cup. We don’t want any of our pacers to break down. Hence we have selected more of them,” he said.

However, they have four pace bowling options apart from Hardik Pandya, they are Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and Shardul Thakur. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma also dismissed comparisons with the 2011 Indian World Cup squad that won the title as well. They beat Sri Lanka in the 2011 World Cup final to lift the trophy for the second time as well.

“In the 2011 team, everybody was a big name. Did any position change? No. You suddenly didn’t have to bring Harbhajan Singh at number 4-5 because all the guys are match winners in the positions that they play. Now we have a lot of newer faces. We had an injury problem, two players (Rahul and Shreyas) are making a comeback after two months. So, things looked different and selection calls had to be made,” Rohit Sharma concluded.

Meanwhile, Team India will begin against Australia in Chennai on Sunday, October 8.