Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul follow footballers' hairstyles, reveals Rohit Sharma

Gone are those days when Indian cricketers looked shy on the cricket field and rarely showed aggression. The players of yesteryear believed more in letting their bat or the ball do the talking rather than their mouths. However, things have changed drastically now and the new-gen players are just the opposite of their predecessors.

The likes of Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul represent Team India‘s young brigade. The current players not only believe in doing well with the bat and ball but also in giving back to the opposition whenever required. Quirky hairstyles and tattoos have become a common thing in Indian cricket now. The transformation of Indian cricketers is a bit surprising since the players in the past did not show these attributes.

The likes of Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and others were aggressive but none of them were seen sporting quirky hairstyle or tattoos. Well, India youngsters have been inspired not by cricketers but by footballers in their quest to look a bit different than their predecessors. Avid football fan and India batting mainstay Rohit Sharma recently spoke on the same.

Footballers are the inspiration: Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma revealed that his younger teammates like Pandya, Rahul and Iyer take inspiration from the footballers for their hairstyles. He also said that youngsters love to follow football as well as the footballers.

“The young guys who have come into the team like Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, they all follow football and they do watch all these footballers, their hairstyle and what they do with their hairstyle..” Rohit said after being named the India brand ambassador of La Liga giants Real Madrid.

He further revealed that Zinedine Zidane is his favourite football player and Real Madrid are his favourite club. The India superstar, who became the first non-footballer in the Spanish league’s history to be named as the brand ambassador, also revealed that Spain are his favourite football country.

“This is not because I am associated with La Liga. I used to love Zinedine Zidane, I watched him play and that’s how I started watching football regularly and Spain obviously because of their skills, how they play football.

“Real Madrid is again because of the skill and passion, how they play and how much skills they have within the group,” he said.

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