Former Kolkata Knight Riders director Joy Bhattacharjya has made a bold statement about Indian captain Rohit Sharma ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Rohit Sharma and selector Ajit Agarkar are likely to meet in Delhi before April 30t to finalize the 15-player squad for the global tournament in the West Indies and USA.
The selection committee is facing selection headache, considering the performance of the top contenders. Joy Bhattacharjya has singled out Rohit Sharma, calling him an undeserving choice for captaincy in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
“The decision to appoint Rohit Sharma as India’s captain for the T20 World Cup may have hampered the team. At this point, Sharma is not the ideal choice to lead the team in the T20I format,” he said on Cricbuzz.
The expert further criticized Sharma’s performance as an opener in the T20 format. He pointed out that Sharma has been outperformed by other opening batters in the ongoing IPL 2024.
“I have the utmost respect for Rohit Sharma and I think he is an amazing cricketer. However, he is currently out of batting form. Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Shubman Gill are in better form right now and are strong contenders for the opening positions. However, since Sharma is the captain, he will open, meaning one of those in-form players will have to bat lower down the order,” he added.
According to Joy, Jasprit Bumrah would have been a better captaincy.
“I would choose Jasprit Bumrah over Rohit Sharma as captain because Bumrah’s skill as a bowler makes him a vital member of the team.”
Bhattacharjya also gave his perspective on Rohit Sharma’s career,
“Rohit has achieved everything in cricket, but there’s one thing he needs to do; win a World Cup. He won the T20 World Cup in 2007 and wants to end his career on a high note, we call it book-ending. That’s a great thought,” he concluded.
Despite MI’s disappointing season, Rohit Sharma has been a bright spot, scoring over 300 runs in just eight matches. The 36-year-old even smashed an unbeaten 105 against arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings.