Gautam Gambhir sheds light on MS Dhoni’s influence in Rohit Sharma’s rise

After a cheeky start in the first match, Rohit Sharma has played back-to-back stunning knocks against various teams in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023.

The Indian skipper achieved a big milestone against Sri Lanka on Friday, as he became the sixth Indian batter after Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, and MS Dhoni to amass a massive 10,000 runs in ODI. The right-hander’s knocks of 74* against Nepal, 56 against Pakistan and 53 against Sri Lanka have made him the current highest scorer in the ongoing edition of Asia Cup (194). Rohit also became the fastest opener to score 8,000 runs.

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Gautam Gambhir highlights MS Dhoni’s role in Rohit’s career

Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir recently opened up on Rohit and highlighted the importance of MS Dhoni in shaping his career by promoting him to bat up in the order.

“Scoring 10,000 runs was not easy for him. Saw many ups and downs. Having seen that phase, Rohit, as a captain, will back youngsters who go through a difficult period. Rohit Sharma is Rohit Sharma today because of MS Dhoni,” Gambhir said on Star Sports.

In Gambhir’s view, Rohit must emulate Dhoni’s approach to nurturing and supporting young, emerging talents in cricket. Much like MS did during his captaincy, the 36-year-old must guide the next generation of players if he hopes to leave a lasting and influential mark on the game.

“MS backed him continuously in his initial struggling phase. If he wants to leave a legacy behind, not in terms of runs but as a captain, a lot will depend on how he backs the young players. It will be interesting to see how he grooms the upcoming players,” he added.

Gambhir also recalled the first impression of the hitman and how confident he was that Rohit would spark wonders in the coming time.
“Rohit was playing against my team in a domestic match, and my team score was 350 Rohit came at no.5 and scored 130 runs and made his team win the match in difficult conditions. I asked Wasim Jaffer who is this guy, from that day I knew that this guy is special,” the former Indian batter recalled.

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