Rohit Sharma tore into Bangladesh's bowling attack at Rajkot as the cyclone which was promised arrived in the form of some stupendous stroke making from the Mumbaikar and stand-in captain.
Rohit's 43-ball 85 had six sixes and six fours as Bangladesh appeared to be all at sea despite posting what seemed like a decent first innings total on board.
Rohit Sharma has been in incredible form in 2019 and carries on from a fine Test series against South Africa where he was promoted to opener for the first time. Here in this series, as captain, Rohit is yet again establishing his supremacy.
Rohit has an incredible record as T20 skipper. Aside from leading Mumbai-based franchise to four title wins in the Indian T20 League, he has stood up for Virat Kohli in his absence so well that the chorus for changing T20I skipper has grown over time.
Skippering India in 17 T20Is, Rohit has led them to 13 wins and just four losses, a win/loss ratio of 3.25 which is the best for any Indian T20I captain.
While we know he can go full tilt as a batsman, on Thursday, Rohit, contrary to his slow acceleration, was on the offensive from the word go. What appeared to be a par total soon turned under par as Rohit took India to 63 inside the powerplay overs.
The opener was on 46 off 21 balls then with Dhawan going at less than run-a-ball. As batsman, Rohit's changed approach was refreshing but it could well have been spurred by his responsibility as captain. When captaining the side, Rohit strikes at a rate of 163.31, in sharp contrast to his strike rate of 131.13 as a player.
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In the 17 innings as captain of the T20I side, Rohit also averages significantly higher - 40.62 as against 30.63 as player. He also has as many hundreds as skipper as when playing just as a player despite the huge difference in number of matches.
His captaincy and intuitiveness is often lauded in the Indian T20 League and is believed to be one of the driving factors behind Mumbai's title wins. At International level, though, constant opportunities have been denied with Kohli firmly installed as skipper across formats.
Rohit's case, though, is not just in T20Is. In 10 ODIs as captain, Rohit has 8 wins and lost just two. Chances have been few and far in the 50-over format but when it has come his way, Rohit has led the team particularly well.
Like with T20Is, his batting record is way better as captain in ODIs too. In 10 matches as skipper, Rohit averages 77.57 with two hundreds and two half-centuries. This is in contrast to his record as just a player when his average is 47.34.
Even with the low sample size across formats, it is pretty evident that Rohit enjoys captaincy and in fact bats more freely as a skipper. A lot of that was evident at Rajkot as Bangladesh suffered a brunt of his Hitman avatar from the word go.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Sajjad Hussain
