5 players Virat Kohli didn’t back but Rohit Sharma did ft. Shreyas Iyer

Virat Kohli has been the captain of the Indian side for quite some time now. It’s been over two and a half years since MS Dhoni passed on the baton to the skipper across all formats. However, there have been times when Rohit Sharma had shouldered the captaincy responsibility as Kohli was rested. Rohit Sharma has led the Indian side in a total of 25 international games. In ODI cricket, he captained the ‘Men in Blue’ in 10 games and has won eight of them. In the shortest format, the Mumbaikar has led the side in 15 games and led them to victory in 12 of them. Meanwhile, Kohli has win percentages of 75.35 and 57.14 in ODIs and T20Is respectively. Both Kohli and Rohit have different captaincy styles and hence, they have different players who they like to back. There are certain players that Kohli didn’t back but Rohit did. Here are five such cricketers who enjoyed a better run under Rohit: 1. Krunal Pandya Krunal Pandya. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images) The Krunal Pandya and Rohit Sharma connection come from Mumbai Indians (MI) as both are the part of the franchise owned by Ambani. Krunal Pandya made his IPL debut in 2016 and since then he’s been an integral part of the franchise. He made his international debut last year in November. Since then he’s played 11 T20Is and is yet to feature in a 50-over game for India. However, out of these 11, six of his games have come when Rohit Sharma was the captain of the Indian side. In fact, he even made his debut when the Mumbaikar was at the helm in the absence of Virat Kohli. Rohit has often been vocal about his support for the elder Pandya during the IPL as well. Hence, it’s no surprise that he backs him to come good. 2. Shreyas Iyer Shreyas Iyer. (Photo Source: Twitter) Shreyas Iyer has been around the Indian set-up for a while now. However, he hasn’t played a lot of international cricket. He has played a total of 12 international matches – six ODIs and six T20Is. Iyer has never got a consistent run in either the ODI or the T20Is. Iyer played a few ODIs in the absence of Virat Kohli in December 2017 under Rohit Sharma. He scored a couple of good half-centuries batting at No. 3. However, once Kohli returned, he was dropped down the order and after a couple of failures, he was axed from the team. 3. Dinesh Karthik Dinesh Karthik celebrates with MS Dhoni. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images) Dinesh Karthik has been around for more than a decade and a half. He had made his international debut even before MS Dhoni did but due to the latter’s presence, Karthik hasn’t been able to establish himself in the team, in any format. Karthik has been in the scheme of the Indian white-ball set-up for the last few years as well. Kohli hasn’t been a big believer in having Karthik at No. 4 or No. 6 in white-ball cricket. He more often prefers him as a backup keeper. Meanwhile, Rohit has backed the Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper quite a bit. In fact, the numbers even suggest the same and Karthik enjoys playing quite a bit under Rohit. Karthik averages 53.00 across all formats under Rohit Sharma in international cricket while he averages a shade under 33 Kohli’s captaincy. 4. Washington Sundar Washington Sundar. (Photo Source: Getty Images) It’s amazing how despite being around for a while, Washington Sundar never played a single international game under Virat Kohli. Moreover, he has been in the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) side for the last couple of years and yet, he has played just a handful of games even in the IPL. Sundar has featured in just 10 IPL games across the last two seasons which underlines the fact that Kohli hasn’t really backed him. On the other hand, Sundar played all his international games under Rohit Sharma. The Mumbaikar backed the Tamil Nadu off-spinner despite him not having the best of international debuts. Rohit backed him throughout the Nidahas Trophy as well where Sundar was the player of the series. 5. Shardul Thakur Shardul Thakur. (photo by Alan Martin/Action Plus via Getty Images) Shardul Thakur and Rohit Sharma share a pretty good relationship. Both of them play for the same side in domestic cricket (Mumbai) and have done well too. Thakur has played just 13 international games for the national team. He’s played one Test, five ODIs and seven T20Is for India, picking a total of 14 wickets. Shardul has enjoyed the backing of Rohit Sharma quite a bit. Barring one, all his T20Is have come under Rohit and despite not being at his best, Rohit has backed him. Shardul played just one ODI under Rohit and that came in the Asia Cup last year.

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5 players Virat Kohli didn’t back but Rohit Sharma did ft. Shreyas Iyer

Rohit has mostly gone for youngsters over experienced players.

5. Shardul Thakur

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