Mumbai Indians won the recently concluded IPL and now the captain, Rohit Sharma, wants a proper and special farewell for Sachin Tendulkar who will be playing his last ever T20 tournament in the ongoing Champions League T20. The captain, while speaking to the media, appeared to be rather elated at having a player of Sachin’s caliber and standing in the team and is of the opinion that if the T20 format was introduced earlier Sachin would have been even more successful in the same. He has stated that the Master Blaster has been in tremendous form as is evident from some of the knocks he has played of late.
The Mumbai Indians skipper has reminisced how Sachin’s was the only name that was popular in his locality when he was growing up. He has also stated how an innings of 70 from 45 balls scored by him has always stayed with him. When he was asked about his experience of leading a team that had some of the biggest names in the game he stated that it was not exactly easy for him either. The stylish right-hander also stated that his first thought was how he was going to lead someone like Tendulkar.
However, Rohit states that he found the batting maestro to be a generous person who helped him a lot as did the other seniors in the team. He especially singled out Ricky Ponting who apparently sat down with Rohit and entrusted him with the duty of helming the Mumbai Indians team. He stated that while making that decision Ponting clearly prioritized the interests of the team and later on also had the gumption to adhere to them. Rohit reasoned that this was one of the major reasons that helped the team win its first ever IPL championship.
Recently Virat Kohli has also called Rohit as one worthy of leading the national side in the future. Rohit praised him as well while stating that he must have done something during his leadership that led Virat bestowing such praise on him. He praised the Delhi batsman for the immense maturity that he has shown especially in the last couple of years. While stating that he was not a fan of statistics he pointed out that the attitude shown by Virat especially his hunger while batting has been really appreciable. There have been some people who have been saying that the overseas teams may not be good enough to be considered a threat in Indian conditions.
Rohit, however, has a different take on the issue. He feels that nowadays these teams are pretty well aware of the conditions on offer and thus they would need to be at their very best in order to perform better than them. He is also aware of the expectations that Mumbai Indians carry having won the sixth edition of the IPL. Incidentally I think that the Mumbai based franchise may find it hard to win it this time without their fast bowling spearhead Lasith Malinga. However, they have sufficient depth in their spin bowling with the likes of Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha. Much will depend on Mitchell Johnson following his fiery form against England in the recently concluded one day series. Pollard and Franklin may also be expected to provide seam bowling support throughout the tournament as will Dwayne Smith provided he plays.
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