Rohit Sharma and his tryst with cricketing immortality

Rohit Sharma (Courtesy: Reuters photo)

From missing out on the 2011 world cup final at the Wankhede and now getting a stand named after him in the same stadium, life has indeed turned full circle for Rohit Sharma.

It was February 2020 and Covid had not yet taken over our lives in India. In fact, it was also the first time I was seeing Rohit Sharma since that fateful day in Manchester in July 2019 and it was expected that the conversation would turn to the world cup at some point. “The five hundreds really don’t mean much anymore”, Rohit said in a very matter of fact manner. “Personally it was a great achievement but when you are playing a team sport it is never about personal milestones. When I reached home after the world cup and everyone was congratulating me for the hundreds, I can very honestly tell you I did not feel any elation. The real prize was in the England dressing room and it was difficult to accept that we had not made the final”, lamented Rohit.

It was as if Rohit was mumbling something to himself. He seemed a little distracted and we couldn’t make sense of what was going on. Seeing me slightly anxious, he smiled and said, “World event jeetna hai. This is one obsession we have to fulfil.”

It was a kind of self introspection. He was speaking to himself more than he was speaking to me. He was desperate to win a world event and it was as if his legacy as a cricketer was dependent on it.

This desperation, it can be argued, can be traced back to 2011. Rohit was dropped from India’s world cup team and missed out on a winning cup campaign. The final of the tournament was at the Wankhede stadium, his home ground. Ask him and he will say it remains his biggest cricketing regret. And now 14 years later a stand is being named after him in the very same ground. Life has indeed come round for India’s 50 over captain and former Test captain.

“Unless we win a world title in the next couple of years, I will be very disappointed”, he was forthright. Now he has two in the last two years, the world T-20 in 2024 and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2025.

To understand Rohit we really need to understand the man’s mind for only then can you make sense of some of his decisions. For example, it was an easy solution for Rohit to opt out of the 2021 Australia tour. Having won a fifth IPL title with the Mumbai Indians in November 2020, he was the toast of the nation. Having come back to India to tend to his father who was infected with Covid in November 2020, Rohit could have decided on skipping the Australia tour, undergo a full fledged rehab at the NCA and be ready for the England tour at home in February 2021. It was logical to do so because a 14 day hard quarantine awaited him in Australia if he decided to undertake the travel to down under in Covid times. Rohit had not travelled with the team and that meant he would be denied the privileges offered to them. They were moving from one bio secure bubble in the UAE to another in Sydney and as a result were allowed to train while serving the mandatory two weeks of quarantine. In Rohit’s case things were different. He would have to fly a commercial airline and that meant he wouldn’t be allowed to train for 14 days and would be confined to a hotel room, which could impact his recovery. In contrast, rehab at the NCA was the more prudent option for cricket in India was gradually restarting and Rohit could be ready for Test cricket by early 2021.

This is how we tended to think. No so Rohit. “I decided to travel to Australia for that’s what I think is right”, said Rohit in one of our many conversations during the 14 day quarantine in Sydney. “This is very difficult I can assure you and I can also tell you I wouldn’t do this ever again. Having said that I am convinced I did the right thing for my dream is to play Test cricket for India and it is only fair that I live my dream”, he argued.

When it comes to India, Rohit is ready to bear pain, risk fear of failure and do all he can to succeed. Nothing else matters and it is this avatar of Rohit Sharma that we celebrate today at the Wankhede. From the perspective of Indian cricket, it is about celebrating one of the best ever. As he moves on from the red ball format, it is right to say that every time there is a Test match played at the Wankhede, the stand will be a testimony to what Rohit has achieved and how he has served the sport with distinction and dignity.

(Boria Majumdar is an eminent sports historian, journalist, and writer. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Revsportz.)