Parthiv Patel narrated how Rohit Sharma came to Jasprit Bumrah’s rescue when the Mumbai Indians were contemplating releasing the India pacer.
First Ravichandran Ashwin, and now Yashasvi Jaiswal. As India celebrate their 4-1 Test series win over England, the anecdotes that prove just how amazing Rohit Sharma is as captain, continues to amaze. Rohit as captain is a different vibe altogether. He may loosely blurt out some controversial words and statements that get captured by the stump mic but that doesn’t mark just how supportive he is of his players. Ashwin recently revealed how Rohit went out of the way to ensure the spinner reached home timely to attend to his mother, while Jaiswal mentioned how Rohit’s game-awareness and backing of players is ‘next level’.
Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2019. (BCCI-Sportzpics)
As Rohit rides on the wave of support shown by his players, another incident has come to light that proves just how good he is when it comes to spotting real and promising talent. Former India and Mumbai Indians wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel narrated an incident as to how Rohit did not flinch when it came to backing Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya in the initial stages of their IPL career. Bumrah, in fact, as Parthiv claims, almost did not play a second season with the franchise with MI deciding to release him midway through a season, but it was on Rohit’s insistence that they persisted with Bumrah, and the rest as they say… is history.
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“Rohit is always with the players and the biggest examples of it are Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. Bumrah joined MI in 2014, but when he played his first season in 2015, it didn’t turn out that well. MI had decided to drop Bumrah midway through the season but Rohit felt this is one solid player and that they should keep him. And you saw how from 2016, Bumrah’s performance reached the next level,” Parthiv said during the Legends Lounge Show on Jio Cinema.
Rohit backed Pandya too
Bumrah actually joined in 2013, but after playing 17 matches across the first three seasons, he only had 11 wickets to show. But after Rohit’s backing, Bumrah was a different beast altogether. He picked up 16 wickets from 14 matches in 2016 and never looked back. Similarly, Rohit showed the same faith in Pandya. After scoring 112 runs and picking 1 wickets in 2015, Hardik made his India debut, but 2016 season wasn’t the most promising. But despite scoring just 44 runs and picking three wickets from 11 matches, Hardik had Rohit to watch his back, and from there, he kept climbing the ladder upwards.
“Same with Hardik Pandya. When he joined in 2015, he became quite the rage but in 2016 he had a bad season. The thing is when you’re an uncapped player, franchises release you quickly and then assess how a player is performing in Ranji Trophy or other domestic matches before maybe taking them back. But Rohit did not let it happen. That’s why these guys went on to become the players that they did,” mention Parthiv.
Ironically, as fate would have it, eight years later, Hardik replaced Rohit as captain of MI for IPL 2024.
