Former South Africa skipper and player, Graeme Smith has recently come to the aid of India skipper, Rohit Sharma.
Recently, Rohit has been undergoing a very rough patch in both the IPL and international cricket as well. Due to this, his franchise Mumbai Indians have been a very underwhelming performer in the last two seasons.
Also, in international cricket, he hasn’t got a very good string of scores to his credit. Because of this, the Indian team management is now facing a severe headache.
Now talking about Rohit’s lack of form has brought him some sympathy from an unexpected quarter. Smith has stated that the Indian skipper just needs to refresh himself.
Furthermore, he has also stated that captaincy and individual duties are both affected when someone starts underperforming.
Says Smith,
One of the biggest challenges of being a captain is your own personal performance. The pressure of a leader never goes away. Rohit probably needs to just refresh. His own form hasn’t been at a level consistently. He is having a bit of a rough patch, and often that personal performance can just settle things down a little bit.
Adding further, he says,
No one is criticizing his captaincy or leadership style. It’s just obviously on the personal perfomance side, if he can get some really good scores behind him, it takes a lot of that pressure away.
Smith emphasizes that senior players always bear the brunt after a failure
Additionally, Smith has also talked about India’s recent loss in the WTC final and stated that many senior Indian players received rather harsh criticism from fans and the media.
However, he has stated that people must not forget that this is the same team that got India once again to the World Test Championship final in the first place.
Whenever there’s a failure, it’s always the senior players that take the most heat. That’s always been a natural thing if you go back (in years). There needs to be a slow integration and a plan for these things. Those are also the players that got you to the WTC final.
Concluding his interview, he says,
They’ve performed around the world for a consistent period of time to get India to the final. So, based on one game, to criticize them and throw them out, it’s very tough.
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