Speaking on the challenges ahead, former Indian pacer AIT Agarwal feels that Rohit's most meaningful challenge would be to stay fit throughout his tenure. Although Rohit led the side during the home Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) against New Zealand last November, he suffered a hamstring injury. He missed out on the tour of South Africa, failing to lead the side in the Odis, as it lost under KL Rahul's leadership.
"I think it's a good thing and the right thing to do – to have one captain for the white-ball format, and now, Rohit actually can fly. So, the challenge for Rohit Sharma, in my opinion, is to stay fit and play everything that is there, from now to the World Cup in white-ball cricket, because you want the captain, that was one of Virat Kohli's strengths or MS Dhoti before that, they rarely missed games, and both were very fit," Agarwal told Star Sports.
Rohit will have a tricky task to lead the side against the Indies, starting with the T20Is from Sunday. Four of the Indians have tested COVID positive and will be missing out. Therefore, besides having a selection headache, it will be interesting to see how he leads the side while his decision-making abilities are observing.
Rohit did not play the Test series against South Africa due to a hamstring injury. He was then forced to be ruled out of the ODI against South Africa as he could not achieve full fitness before the selection committee announced the squad.
The hamstring problem kept recurring, due to which he had to sit out in the first two Test matches on the tour of Australia in 2020-21 and also in the white-ball phase. However, now Rohit will captain the team in the series against West Indies, which starts with the Odis in Ahmedabad from February 6.
This aspect is a challenge every captain faces, especially in limited-overs formats, where fitness and agility are as important as form and experience. If we look at the current ODI set-up, India have opener Shikhar Drawn, who is already 36, but has been performing exceedingly well in the ODI format. Rohit himself is 34, while Kohl turned 33 last month.
While all of them deserve their place in the ODI set-up, Rohit and the team management should be open to change in case of non-performances. The same applies to youngsters as well. They cannot drag on things like the Test think tank has done with Cheesier Gujarat and Slinky Rhine in rather embarrassing fashion. The confusion regarding the latter, in particular, has become apparent with him being retained as a batter for the South Africa Tests, but being sacked as vice-captain.
Characters in India's middle-order slots were changed as if it were a game of musical chairs. Just ahead of the 2019 World Cup, Kohl announced that Amati Rayudu had booked the no.4 spot for the ICC event. However, when the squad was announced, Rayudu was shockingly not picked, with 'three-dimensional' Vijay Shankar getting the nod.
Rohit Sharma is the new full-time Team India skipper for the limited-overs format. For the first time, he will be leading in the One-Day Internationals (Odis) as a full-time captain, starting with the home series against the Indies from Sunday. However, he will have some challenges going ahead, with some significant ones.
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