The Legend of Rohit Sharma: Mumbai Indians' Dominance and the Rise of a Captain
Rohit Sharma during training for Mumbai Indians (Source:Twitter)
'The Hitman', as he is fondly known - Rohit Sharma is the name that no matter how hard you try, you just cannot separate it from Mumbai Indians. The man has been the face of Mumbai Indians for over a decade now and has made them record 5-time champions since taking over the leadership role midway during the 2013 season.
The love story between Mumbai Indians and Rohit Sharma started in 2011 when Mumbai bought him at the mega-auctions and there was no looking back since then. The breakthrough though came in the 2013 season when Ricky Ponting decided to hand Rohit captaincy midway during the season and what followed was the creation of legacy that would be hard to come close to for years to come.
The 2013 was also the year of rise of Rohit Sharma - The opening batter and along with his rise in world cricket, Mumbai's rise as one of the most dominant franchise in the world of T20 franchise leagues started. They became IPL champions in alternate years starting from 2013 to 2019 and then became only the second team after CSK to win back-to-back IPL trophies in 2020 and it was Rohit Sharma who led from the front by guiding a tricky run-chase with a classy fifty.
However, the biggest contribution of Rohit Sharma for Mumbai Indians is the never-say-die attitude he has been able to ingrained in the MI setup. Mumbai Indians lost their first six games in the IPL 2015 and looked down and out halfway into the season. However, Rohit was able to turn the hopeless situation into a history-creating event as Mumbai won 9 of their 10 matches after the opening six games and bagged their second trophy, thus creating the legend of Rohit Sharma.
Also, one of the biggest quality of a leader is to identify the talent and create superstars from them and that is exactly what Rohit, the captain did as he created an arsenal of world-beaters. The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Krunal Pandya were all unknown players when they came into the MI setup but Rohit's backing and his ability to bring the best out of his players, made them superstars.
His exploits for Mumbai Indians as a skipper made him a top-candidate to lead the Indian side as well. He had done that pretty successfully as well but it was in the MI setup that Rohit - the captain was born and let's hope that the Hitman continues to take the rich legacy of Mumbai Indians and India to greater heights in years to come.