Taking one for the team

Dubai: As the high ball, propelled way into the night sky by a tennis racquet, gathers momentum on its downward journey, the ample figure circles under it, head protected by a helmet. When the ball descends, it is supposed to be met with the head in the hope that one of the team-mates in the near vicinity will catch it with one hand. This is a recent addition to India’s training session, a game to regroup while adding a coordination and spatial awareness component. Unsurprisingly, the man to take first guard, so to say, in this exercise at the ICC Academy ground on Wednesday night was Rohit Sharma.

Leading from the front is an oft (mis)used cliche, but when it is used in conjunction with Rohit Sharma, it makes absolute and total sense.

Rohit had already amassed an impressive volume of work with Mumbai Indians when he was made India’s all-format captain nearly three years back. Not just with Mumbai Indians, but with India also whenever he substituted for Virat Kohli when the latter was unavailable. Five IPL titles with the Mumbai franchise and, more notably, the Nidahas Trophy in Colombo in March 2018 when Dinesh Karthik’s last-ball six to secure the final against Bangladesh sent a nation into delirium.

There is a backstory to that Karthik six. India were chasing 167 and Rohit kept holding the wicketkeeper back despite the latter’s reputation as a finisher. Manish Pandey, then Vijay Shankar, were promoted; by the time Karthik was eventually unleashed, steam coming out of his ears at the perceived slight, India needed 34 off two overs.

Oh, what have you done, Rohit?

Poke the beast, he might say.

Rohit held Karthik back because he didn’t want him to do anything silly against Mustafizur Rahman, Bangladesh’s best bowler who was bowled out by the end of the 18th over. Pandey fell to the last ball of Mustafizur’s spell, after which Karthik lay into Rubel Hossain and then Soumya Sarkar. Eight balls later, he was 29 not out, two fours, three sixes, game sealed, trophy clinched.

Rohit Sharma is no magician, but he is a terrific leader of men. He is creative and imaginative, yes, but he is also empathetic and sensitive. He is quick to anger, but he is even quicker to a smile. His one-liners are legendary, often unprintable but never with malice. He isn’t the politically correct sort who uses the stump mike judiciously to make his point. He is an unshackled spirit, admired and admirable; he is no sealed vessel of perfection, uncracked and uncrackable.

In the last few months, the Rohit aura has faded somewhat. His exploits in the 50-over World Cup in 2023 and in the T20 World Cup last year, both as bruising batter and master puppeteer pulling strings and manipulating the marionettes, were pushed to the backburner with India unprecedentedly losing 0-3 to New Zealand in the home Test series in October-November and the surrendering of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia at the top of this year. His own Test form took such a horrible beating that by the end of the last match in Sydney, he sat himself out, believing that he didn’t fit in India’s best XI.

That was ballsy. It took guts and courage because the optics wouldn’t be great. But Rohit hasn’t been one for the optics. He regrouped and came back strongly with a 32nd ODI hundred against England in Cuttack earlier this month, batting like the blazing Rohit of the last two years even though he knew that came with attendant risks and a high chance of failure.

Here in Dubai, Rohit has again taken it upon himself to be the enforcer, happy to look ugly in his quest for quick runs against the new ball on pitches that slow down dramatically with time. Ugly doesn’t sit well on Rohit, but the captain has always taken one for the team. Why should it be any different now?