AHMEDABAD: At 2.36 PM on Saturday, Rohit Sharma's white-ball era as the Indian captain came to a quiet end. As soon as the announcement from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) hit their socials, the broadcaster was already running clips of Sharma the ODI batter.
But India aren't moving on from Sharma, the destructive opener. Not yet, anyway. What they are moving on from is Sharma the captain, who made the Indian team win the biggest matches after an 11-year drought. What they are moving on from is Sharma, the skipper, who put in place a new template of ODI batting. What they are moving on from is Sharma, the leader who showed it was okay to sacrifice individual milestones for the greater good of the team.
The squad analysis can come later. It's now time to reflect on Sharma's ultra-rich legacy. When he took over from Virat Kohli, the team was good but not great. He came, changed the culture, installed a more laissez-faire bottom-up approach and allowed the team to breathe.
He leaves it in a much better place than when he found it, cricketing and otherwise. When he was given the keys to Indian cricket's poisoned chalice — a captaincy gig – it came with a rider. Make us winning machines.
Sure, no team is entitled to all the trophies available in the sport but what's the point of all of that commerce when the said team has no title to show for in almost a decade? No team has ever won a title on the basis of how strong their balance sheets are.
The Mumbaikar's job, when he was given the gig after the World Cup debacle in the UAE in 2021, was focused around two things. Make this team more dynamic at the top and incentivise risk-taking but without the fear of failure.
As part of the first step, Sharma, almost overnight, changed his entire batting ethos. From accumulating at the start to exploding at the death, he focused on maximising the power play.
From striking at a shade under 96 from the beginning of 2015 till the end of 2021 (24 100s), he scored at least 116 runs per every 100 balls since 2022 (three 100s). How did he do this? He was willing to take more chances in the power play but was also happy to go in search of more hits over the fence.
From 2015 to 2021, his four to six ratio was over three. Since then? 2.15. All this resulted in his average falling off the staircase, but this was the sort of culture he wanted to set.
It all went back to an interview he had given on a talk show after taking over from Kohli. "We felt there needs to be a change in our attitude. ... how we play the game," he had said. "We had a clear message and they were ready to accept it. If the messages are clear from the captain and the coach, individuals will try and do that. For that, they need freedom and clarity, which is what we are trying to do. We are trying to give them as much freedom as possible."
Nobody embodied that freedom more than Sharma himself. The 2023 Asia Cup, 2023 World Cup, the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy... he was sui generis. Not because he was scoring 100 after 100. But because he set the tempo up top. Indian cricket had not seen anything like this in a long, long time, but this was exactly what they wanted to see. For a long time, the fans wanted a team to shed that inherent conservatism and finally, here was somebody who was willing to do that.
That change in attitude at the top, combined with cultural changes elsewhere, brought about a phase where the Indian team became a fun juggernaut. Global titles followed, and the fun never stopped. And, now, the baton has been handed over to Gill, a man who was already part of the leadership group.
One thing can be said for certain. Gill takes over a winning machine thanks to Sharma.
