Rohit Sharma has carried out the duties of a captain with grit and determination since taking over as captain of the Indian team. Succeeding a great like Virat Kohli was never going to be easy, and Rohit could easily have been compared to his predecessor.

However, the veteran Indian batter stepped up to the plate with confidence, and the result is visible to all. Since November of last year, when Rohit was appointed as India’s permanent captain (in white-ball cricket), the team hasn’t lost a single match, routing New Zealand, the West Indies, and Sri Lanka along the way.

Also Read|IPL 2022: Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma fail to score a fifty in last 27 innings combined

Rohit managed to transition smoothly into the role of India captain, and a lot of that was due to the fact that he is the IPL’s most successful skipper, having led Mumbai Indians to a record five titles. During his eight-year stint as MI captain, Rohit honed his captaincy skills, which he has successfully transferred to the Indian team. Even at MI, Rohit was always there for his teammates, as Suryakumar Yadav shared an example. Suryakumar had a fantastic IPL 2020 season, scoring 480 runs, and was naturally expecting a call-up for the upcoming tour of Australia. Suryakumar, surprisingly, did not make any of the limited-overs squads, which disappointed him, and it was there that Rohit’s words of encouragement helped him.

Also Read|IPL 2022: Virat Kohli dismissed for golden duck against Lucknow Super Giants

“It was my birthday in 2020 and Rohit told me ‘Many happy returns of the day. Keep working hard. You are not far from the India cap’. He was always behind me, pushing me ‘Keep making runs’. If you’re scoring, score again in the next game and the one after that also. Keep knocking on that door and if it doesn’t open, break it down. So he was completely behind me,” Suryakumar revealed this to actor, television and cricket presenter Gaurav Kapur on his YouTube show ‘Breakfast with Champions.’

“The way the IPL started and the way it was going, then 2-3 squads for a tour were announced and I wasn’t in them. Everyone around me was saying I will be selected, but when I wasn’t, I was like ‘How did it happen? Everything was going well in the last 2 years’. Do you wonder what else you should do? Rohit bhai asked me ‘Are you disappointed? I said ‘Can’t you tell that from my face? I’m sure you can sense it’.”

Also Read|IPL 2022: Hazelwood, skipper du Plessis shine in RCB defeat of LSG

Suryakumar had the option of remaining deflated or moving on and ultimately chose the latter. Suryakumar revealed how Rohit, along with a few other legends, helped him leave behind the disappointment and emerge stronger after being low on confidence for a few days. Suryakumar would go on to make his India debut a few months later and become an indispensable member of the limited-overs squads.

Also Read|IPL 2022: Kohli back to skipper duty after Faf du Plessis rests vs LSG

“On match day, he, Zaheer Khan and Mahela Jayawardene said, ‘I think this is the perfect opportunity for you to show everyone what you’ve got’. I said ‘okay’, but still there was a lot going on in my head. Luckily, we fielded first and the rush of blood and adrenaline gradually lessened. I wasn’t thinking much, everything was flowing. The target and situation also presented themselves. I said ‘Now is the time. If I score now, everything will fall in place.’ The last 5 days that I had wasted by missing training, skipping gym sessions, I can wipe the slate clean in this game and no matter what, I have to win it for my team,” he added.