5 Reasons why Rohit Sharma should lead India in limited-overs format

4. Leadership instincts 

Rohit Sharma is a natural leader. He is not the go-getter like Virat Kohli. He is not an in-your-face man like Ricky Ponting. He has an element of Sourav Ganguly when it comes to backing the players. When it is about holding the nerves under pressure, Rohit has an element of MS Dhoni. As was once pointed out by Mahela Jayawardene, one standout and similar trait of Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni, is their quality trusting the instincts and then backing themselves.

How else does one describe the call of introducing Jayant Yadav, the spinner, in the fourth over, against an in-form Shikhar Dhawan, in an all-important IPL Final? That too notwithstanding the fact that two express pacemen – Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult – were wreaking havoc from both ends. Clearly, the ideal strategy would have been to continue with the pacers and give one of them an extended spell after MI reduced DC to 3 for 22.

However, not only did Rohit discontinue the spell of the pacer, but he introduced Jayant Yadav over Rahul Chahar, and his move paid off. A similar example of his captaincy prowess was his belief in Dinesh Karthik’s ability to finish games. It was Karthik’s cameo that led India to a historic win.