T20 WORLD CUP: SOURAV GANGULY BACKS ROHIT SHARMA'S INDIA TO END ICC TROPHY DROUGHT
Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly reckons Rohit Sharma's leadership qualities played a massive role in India's unbeaten record in the ongoing T20 World Cup, and urged the squad to play freely in the final against South Africa to end an 11-year wait for an ICC trophy. India will meet the Proteas in the title match in Bridgetown, Barbados, seeking their first global trophy since winning the Champions Trophy in 2013. "I'm very happy for Rohit Sharma. Life comes full circle. Six months ago he was not even the captain of Mumbai Indians and the same man is now leading India to a World Cup final, unbeaten," Ganguly said after being roped in as the brand ambassador of Veedol.
According to the former BCCI president, Rohit was hesitant to take over as captain when Virat Kohli stepped down. "He has played two World Cup finals where he has gone into the final unbeaten. That speaks of his captaincy and leadership quality and I'm not surprised because he became captain when I was the BCCI president and when Virat didn't want to captain India anymore. It took a lot of time to make him captain because he was not ready to be captain. It took a lot of pushing from all of us to make him captain and I'm very happy to see the progress of Indian cricket under him."
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Ganguly also said that winning IPL titles could sometimes be more challenging because of the duration of the tournament. "Rohit has the record of winning five IPL titles, which is a huge achievement. Winning an IPL sometimes is more difficult. Don't misquote me, I'm not saying IPL is better than international cricket. "But you have to win 16-17 (12-13) matches to win an IPL; here you need to win 8-9 matches to win a World Cup. The honour is more in winning the World Cup, and I hope Rohit does it tomorrow." "I don't think he can lose two World Cup finals in seven (six) months. He will probably jump into the Barbados ocean if he loses two finals under his captaincy in seven months. He has led from the front, batted brilliantly, and I hope it continues tomorrow. Hope India finishes on the right side, and they should play with freedom.
"They have been the best side of the competition. I wish them luck, I wish they win. Hope they have a little bit of luck tomorrow because that is required to win big tournaments," Ganguly added. Since their Champions Trophy victory, India has advanced to the finals of the 2014 T20 World Cup, the 2023 50-over World Cup, and the WTC twice without winning any of them. "I look at it differently. At least we are getting to the finals, we can only win once we get to the final," he said. "The positive thing is India is not getting eliminated. Secondly, they are dominating. You saw the World Cup in India seven months ago; they were the best side in the competition, although they lost to Australia in the final. "They were a better side than Australia right through the tournament; they just had one bad day," he pointed out.
2024-06-28T15:41:54Z dg43tfdfdgfd