By Karan Agrawal 
India won its third Champions Trophy title after beating New Zealand in the final held in Dubai. This is India’s second ICC trophy in less than 12 months, having won the T20 World Cup in June last year. With this win, Rohit Sharma became only the second Indian captain after MS Dhoni to have won at least two ICC trophies. Talking about Rohit’s leadership, former Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that the Indian captain has changed the mindset of Indian white ball cricket, which started after India’s 10-wicket loss against England in the semifinal of the 2022 T20 World Cup. “He (Rohit) has led by example since that 2022 T20 World Cup semifinal loss against England. If a captain is willing to risk his wicket in the middle, the players know that’s how they will have to play,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
The Change
“Rohit’s biggest legacy is not about winning the tournaments. He has won five IPL titles with the Mumbai Indians. He has now led India to back-to-back ICC titles. That’s not his legacy. Rohit Sharma has changed the batting frontier of Indian white-ball cricket. That is his biggest legacy.” “He is a stalwart in ODI cricket. Actually, he changed out the cricketing thought process in the white-ball when it comes to the batting. Earlier, it was to score big runs and remain not out. Please note this. In India, the batting landscape was like this only: the top three batters will score big runs; they will improve their average,” he added.
The Result
Ashwin said that the same approach has been inculcated in age-group cricket as well. “The mindset is the same even in the junior age group; you stay not out and score big. I feel as a batter now in the ODIs and in the T20Is, you must play selfless cricket. With that regard, Rohit Sharma has changed that mindset as a captain with the way he is playing and is asking his players to play the same way. May God be with him; he has been an absolute superstar for the Indian team,” Ashwin added.
Nice observation