During Rohit Sharma's captaincy reign, the thirst for personal milestones and preserving one's wicket took a backseat.
Rohit Sharma's glittering tenure as full-time ODI captain ended on a poignant note ahead of India's tour of Australia, with his opening partner Shubman Gill stepping up as the new skipper in the 50-over format -- fresh off a promising Test start that included a gritty 2-2 draw in England.
The tour of Australia, consisting of three ODIs and five T20Is, does feature white-ball icons Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, something their die-hard fans were craving after their Test retirements.
Yet the captaincy change can't help but stir a lot of questions, a sense of reminiscence and nostalgia, and perhaps a tear or two in fans' eyes of the fans, who passionately followed the Hitman's journey from his 2011 World Cup snub to the 'almost-there' finish in the 2023 World Cup final at Ahmedabad, where Pat Cummins-led Australia put an end to India's dominant, record-breaking 10-match win streak, denying Rohit his redemption story.
Since first wearing the ODI captaincy armband in 2017, Rohit led India in 56 ODIs, winning 42 games, losing just 12, one ending in a no-result, while one ended in a tie. His win percentage of 75 per cent makes him one of the world's elite white-ball leaders.
Under Rohit, India won the 2018 and 2023 ODI Asia Cup, runners-up position in the 2023 World Cup at home and triumphed in the the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai this year.
Rohit's first major ODI captaincy victory dates back to 2018, when he contributed 317 runs in five innings, including a century and two fifties, at an average of 105.66 -- helping India clinch the Asia Cup -- his real magic ignited when he took over the ODI captaincy in early-2022 when Virat Kohli was removed as the captain.
From February 2022 onwards, when Rohit began his full-time ODI captaincy role against the West Indies, Team India won 34 out of 46 matches and lost just 10, while one match ended in a no result, while one was tied.
In those 46 ODIs, Rohit tallied 1,963 runs in 45 matches at an average of 47.87 and a strike rate of 116.84, including three centuries and 15 fifties. During this phase, no captain leading in 20-plus ODIs struck at a better strike rate than Rohit.
Rohit's 47.87 average ranked as the third-highest, behind Pakistan's Babar Azam (56.25 in 34 matches) and West Indies' Shai Hope (54.17 in 38 matches). Yet Babar (86.93) and Hope (95.55) lagged too behind Rohit in terms of strike rate.
During his captaincy reign, the thirst for personal milestones and preserving one's wicket took a backseat.
India's New Zealand blues during ICC events? All it took was Rohit tonking Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Matt Henry effortlessly during the first 10 overs of the powerplay to wipe the trauma during the ICC Champions Trophy final this year.
Semifinals? Finals? The occasion did not matter. Rohit took on the best, in the best way possible: attacking.
A crowd of over 1 lakh people at Ahmedabad and likes of Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc steaming in to deliver a 140 mph rocket? No problem. All Rohit did was step down and send the ball sailing into the sea of blue with the late elegance only a few in world cricket possessed.
While Rohit could not convert his entertaining 40s into fifties and 60s, 70s into centuries, he consistently provided the impact India had long been missing in the Powerplay over the years.
His exploits with opener Shubman Gill gave India a perfect start and just enough time for star batter Virat Kohli to settle in, tire down the psyche of bowlers with his masterful strike rotation and odd boundaries/sixes in middle overs and let the likes of K L Rahul, Shreyas Iyer carry out their batting pyrotechnics while he was at the crease.
His ODI batting template changed the DNA of Indian batting, which, for long, had frowned upon attacking right from the start, valued the conservation of wickets and prioritised a steady defence.
If Kohli could dismantle the opponents with words, stare and visible aggression, Rohit would do it just with a piece of wood in his hands, and this cocktail of verbal and physical destruction proved too much for his opponents.
In all three major tournaments as a full-time ODI captain, Rohit was India's most impactful batter, scoring 971 runs in 21 innings at an average of 48.55, with a stunning strike rate of 116.42, including a century and seven fifties. While Kohli took the 'Mr Consistent' title with 1,112 runs in 19 innings at an average of 79.42, with five centuries and seven fifties, he could thank Rohit for many of them -- the skipper's explosive starts bought him precious time to settle, assess, and unleash.
The most standout campaign was the 2023 World Cup, where he emerged as the second-highest run-getter with 597 runs in 11 innings at an average of 54.27 and a strike rate of 125.94, with a century and three sixes -- delivering the best campaign by an opener featuring in 10-plus World Cup matches during a single edition. He also hit the most sixes by a player in a single ODI World Cup.
Another big occasion Rohit shone was during the final of Champions Trophy in March. Having failed to convert his starts throughout the whole tournament, Rohit walked away with the 'Player of the Match' medal for scoring a clutch 76 off 83 balls in pursuit of 252 against New Zealand.
With Gill's Test promise -- marked by that hard-fought 2-2 draw in England and a home win over West Indies in Ahmedabad -- the stage is set for him to weave his own magic in ODIs, backed by mentors Rohit and Virat in the lineup.
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