The Indian cricket team will be under immense pressure when they will start their ICC ODI World Cup 2023 campaign because India hasn’t won an ICC trophy since 2013 and this time, expectations are very high as the tournament is taking place in India.
The Indian team will definitely have the advantage of playing at home and the last time when India won the ODI World Cup in 2011, India was the host of the tournament as well. It won’t be wrong to say that the period from 2007 to 2013 was the golden era of Indian cricket. Under MS Dhoni’s captaincy, India won the T20 World Cup in 2007, ODI World Cup in 2011 and Champions Trophy in 2013 but since then, India hasn’t even any ICC trophy.
After MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli was appointed as the skipper of the Indian team and after Kohli gave up captaincy, Rohit Sharma was appointed as the skipper but both of them failed in making their team win the ICC trophy.
Recently, the former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar gave an interview in which he talked about the leading styles of MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Shoaib Akhtar said that there was a time when there was a guy who used to take all the pressure on himself and he was MS Dhoni. Akhtar further said that only a skipper can shield the whole team behind himself. As per Shoaib Akhtar, Rohit is a great person but he panics during captaincy and this may sound harsh but he feels that Rohit Sharma shouldn’t have taken captaincy.
Shoaib Akhtar goes on to say that Rohit Sharma is a better player than Virat Kohli, he calls Rohit a classical player but questions his captaincy skills and says that even Rohit Sharma should question himself about it.
Shoaib Akhtar says that he strongly feels that over the years, Indian captaincy has crippled in pressure situations even during the time of Virat Kohli. Akhtar feels that the Indian team missed the calm composure that Dhoni provided because Virat was over-aggressive and Rohit panics.
However, Shoaib still feels that Rohit Sharma has the ability to win the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup and the former Pakistani pacer wants Rohit Sharma to prove him wrong by winning the World Cup. Shoaib Akhtar says that Rohit will be having the support of his home crowd, his team and his own talent which will help him in winning the World Cup.
Do you agree with Shoaib Akhtar?