Indian all-format captain Rohit Sharma was lauded by Daren Sammy, who described him as a “team first” type of leader.     

Daren Sammy, the captain of the West Indies and a two-time T20 World Cup champion, praised Indian all-format skipper Rohit Sharma and referred to him as a “team first” sort of leader. The 35-year-old was chosen as Team India’s all-format skipper after Virat Kohli resigned from the role following the conclusion of the T20 World Cup in the UAE last year. The Men in Blue will be led by Rohit Sharma as they attempt to capture their first championship since the tournament’s inception in 2007 at the upcoming T20 World Cup. Under MS Dhoni’s captaincy, India won the first T20 World Cup in 2007, but they haven’t won an ICC trophy in this format since.

In an interview with Vimal Kumar that was posted on the latter’s YouTube channel, Sammy commended Sharma for his leadership abilities and stated: “I love the way he captains. That’s why Mumbai Indians have been one of the most successful IPL franchises. He is not a ‘him-first’ but a ‘team-first’ type of captain. When you have a leader that could motivate men, it doesn’t matter who does the job for the team, the team comes first. And Rohit Sharma comes across like that to me.”

Rohit Sharma has been a successful T20I captain since taking over as the team’s permanent captain. India is now leading South Africa 2-0 under his direction after recently defeating Australia in a series. After their disappointing T20 World Cup performance in the UAE, India has made a deliberate attempt to be much more offensive, especially with the bat.

Mixed evaluations have been given to Team India’s revised plan. Sammy, though, backed the action as he added: “You have an app on your phone and you have to keep updating it. When they won, that (old) method was okay. But when you have teams that are capable of hitting boundaries, their chances of them scoring quicker than you will always be there. If you consolidate too much, you set yourself back. And if the people consolidating get out, then you have two new batters coming in.”

“If you go hard and try to put the bowlers under pressure early, even if you lose wickets, you are so high in the run-rate, you can still consolidate. That’s what I see has changed with Rohit Sharma and India now. They have the personnel to actually do it. It would be interesting to see how it goes at this year’s World Cup in Australia,” Sammy concluded.