Ravichandran Ashwin tells how Rohit Sharma is different from MS Dhoni as captain

NEW DELHI: The pain of losing the ODI World Cup final last month will remain there for a while in the minds of Indian team, especially skipper Rohit Sharma who may not get another chance to emulate MS Dhoni's feat to win the World Cup as a skipper. In fact, Rohit has already hinted about his white-ball cricket plans, as he excused himself from the limited-overs leg for India's tour of South Africa.
But the loss in the World Cup final against Australia takes nothing away from Rohit the skipper and the player, who led the time appreciably to reach the title match unbeaten in 10 games and ended up as the tournament's second highest scorer with 597 runs.


Ravichandran Ashwin may have watched the majority of the World Cup from the dressing room, but having played under both Dhoni and Rohit, he was best placed to see how Rohit was scripting India's dream run by being a team man.
"If you take a look at Indian cricket, everybody will be telling you that MS Dhoni is the best captain. (But) Rohit Sharma is an outstanding person. He understands every single player in the team. He knows the likes and dislikes of each of us and has a great understanding. He puts in the effort to know each player personally," said the veteran off-spinner while speaking to former India batter Subramaniam Badrinath on the latter's YouTube channel.
Ashwin played just one game, India's tournament opener against Australia, and did not feature in the next 10 matches, including the final. But he isn't complaining and understood the mindset of captain Rohit.
India had a combination that was working, especially after Mohammed Shami replaced Hardik Pandya in the eleven after the latter suffered an ankle injury and was subsequently ruled out.
Rohit chose to not tinker with something that was working for him and the team.
"It's like standing in someone else's shoes and looking at things from his or her perspective. Had I been in Rohit's shoes, I would have thought 100 times about altering the (winning) combination. It was going alright for the team, so why rest a fast bowler for three spinners?" Ashwin explained.