Raina also credited Rohit for giving opportunities to Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel, who starred in India’s respective wins in Rajkot and Ranchi.
Rohit Sharma was both praised and criticised through the course of the last two Test matches – in Rajkot and Ranchi – despite India winning both the games. While few draw comparisons with Ben Stokes’ aggressive style of play, especially through field placements, few others claimed that India “missed Virat Kohli’s leadership”, the remaining were all praise at how the veteran star led a gang of novices to take down one of the top teams in Test cricket. The win in Ranchi, by five wickets, where India bounced back from a first-innings deficit, saw the hosts become the first-ever side to beat England in a series in the Bazball era.
Suresh Raina was all praise for Rohit Sharma’s captaincy in the England Test series
However, the biggest ever praise Rohit earned over the last few weeks came on Tuesday when India legend Suresh Raina compared him with the likes of MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly. Speaking to the Times of India after the home team grabbed an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series against England, Raina said that Rohit gave chances to the youngsters and mentored them throughout just like Dhoni did and believed that the India captain is going in the right direction with his leadership.
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“He is the next MS Dhoni. He has done well. He has been giving a lot of chances to youngsters the way MS Dhoni did. I played a lot of cricket under MS Dhoni. Sourav Ganguly supported his team a lot. Then MS Dhoni came and led from the front. Rohit is going in the right direction. He is a brilliant captain,” he said.
Rohit has now led India to nine Test-match victories in 15 appearances as a captain. It comprises series victories against England (2024), Australia (2022/23), West Indies (2023) and Sri Lanka (2021/22). India are yet to be defeated in a contest under Rohit, with the team managing to hold South Africa to a draw in a two-match series earlier in January.
Raina also credited Rohit for giving opportunities to Sarfaraz Khan, who starred on debut in Rajkot with fifties in both the innings, and Dhruv Jurel, who earned the Player of the Match award in Ranchi for his brilliant knock of 90.
“I want to give credit to Rohit Sharma. He first gave Sarfaraz the chance and then made Jurel part of the team,” said the former India batter.
India will next face England in the final match of the series on March 7 in Dharamsala.
