Rohit Sharma inspired India to go out and do the job for him: Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble praised Rohit Sharma’s captaincy as the star batsman saw India remain at the top of the World Test Championship standings and move closer to another finals appearance. Rohit engineered a good run in 2024 that saw India beat England 4-1 and then beat Bangladesh 2-0.

In the final match of the Bangladesh series, Rohit would lead as India broke all sorts of records on their way to winning the rain-shortened Kanpur Test. Speaking to JioCinema, Kumble said that Rohit has been brilliant tactically and also praised the way he has managed to marshal the world-class resources at his disposal in the Indian team.

“Tactically, he has been brilliant in terms of being proactive in a Test match with the kind of resources he has. He is blessed to have these kind of resources with two world-class spinners and Bumrah, who you can literally throw the ball to. in the first over or in the 80th over, he will come and do all his tricks. He is a world-class player and to have that kind of resource, he has been blessed.

“But to organize all of that and then navigate the younger players, I think he’s been brilliant. Someone like Yashasvi Jaiswal under Rohit’s captaincy in his opening batting role, you see what he has shown with the kind of approach he has. I had.”

“Shubman Gill, of course, had to move from one and 2 to 3, which he again did comfortably well here. KL Rahul was moved up and down. This again went down very well. It’s great to have Rishabh Pant back and Virat, you know, at number four also performed brilliantly under Rohit,” Kumble said.

IND vs NZ 1st Test Day 1: Bengaluru Weather Updates

Rohit made the team rally around him

Kumble also feels that Rohit made the team rally around him and ensured that they would do the work on the field for him.

“Having all these resources. And we saw that even in the England Series, where he didn’t have the services of Virat and Pant, and had to make do with the youngsters. With Dhruv Jurel coming in and playing that match- winning and recovering from one to zero, I think that shows leadership.”

“It’s not that, you know, he’s been scoring a lot. He’s got the team to come together and make sure they still win the last two Test matches. He hasn’t really scored much with his bat, but he has inspired his team go all the way there and do the work for him,” Kumble said.

In 18 matches under Rohit’s captaincy, India have won 12 Tests and have a win percentage of 66.66.