'How much cricket is he going to play?' - Dinesh Karthik gives his take on Rohit Sharma's appointment as all-format captain

Rohit Sharma’s full-time tenure as India’s limited-overs skipper has got off to a dream start as the Men In Blue registered a second straight T20I series whitewash with a 17-run triumph against the West Indies in the third game at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Sunday, February 20. By the virtue of this win, the Indian team registered a third consecutive home bilateral limited-overs series whitewash as well under Rohit’s captaincy.

As the Hitman’s leadership career looks forward to taking Indian cricket to greater heights, his good friend as well as veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik has talked about the challenges that the star opener will be facing after recently being appointed as India’s all-format captain.  At the same time, Karthik has made it clear that the 34-year-old is well ahead of the game when it comes to tactics.

I think Rohit Sharma is very astute tactically: Dinesh Karthik

“I think Rohit is very astute tactically. And the amount of cricket he will play will define how consistently he can play all three formats. He is at a place where there is a lot of cricket to be played throughout the year. That’s going to be a big challenge for someone like Rohit. He is a quality captain… there’s no doubt about that. When it comes to tactics, we saw in this game (third T20I against West Indies) that he is well ahead of the game,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.

“He rotated bowlers and brought Avesh Khan at the right time. Also, Shardul gave away 18 runs in his first over but finished with figures of 4/33. He (Rohit) is somebody who understands bowlers and what to do with them. With Rohit, the question is always going to be: ‘How much cricket is he going to play?’,” he further added.

Rohit Sharma was all set to lead India in the three-match ODI series against South Africa before a hamstring injury ruled him out of the entire tour.  He would now be focusing on two major tournaments later this year- the Asia Cup T20 where the Men in Blue would be defending their title, having won the inaugural edition in 2016 and the ICC T20 World Cup down under in October-November.

The explosive opener has the experience of leading India to a couple of multi-nation tournament wins. The Nidhas Trophy tri-series featuring Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in March 2018 and the ODI Asia Cup later that year. He was the stand-in captain as regular skipper Virat Kohli was rested on both occasions.