Former India cricketer and captain of the 1983 World Cup winning team, Kapil Dev has questioned the fitness of Rohit Sharma. Kapil believes that Rohit Sharma is not fit to captain India.
After becoming Rohit’s captain in all three formats, India has played a total of 68 matches, including five Tests, 21 ODIs and 42 T20I matches. However, Rohit has been able to play only 39 of these matches. This includes two Tests, eight ODIs and 29 T20I matches.
Rohit did not play in a total of 29 matches during this period. He was rested in most of these matches, as all these matches were played in a very short time and BCCI manages the workload of its players to avoid injury.
However, due to injury, Rohit could not play in many important matches. The Test match against England was one of these, in which Jasprit Bumrah captained and India had to face defeat.
Rohit Sharma’s fitness has been a topic of discussion in the last one year. However, his poor form with the bat has added to his worries.
Kapil Dev said that there is no problem with Rohit Sharma’s cricketing skills. He has been one of the pillars of Indian batting in the last decade along with Virat Kohli, but his fitness is a major concern. Kapil said that he has serious doubts about the fitness of the Indian captain.
Kapil on a private channel said “Rohit Sharma has no shortcomings. He has everything but I personally feel, there is a big question mark on his fitness. Is he fit enough? Because every team’s captain is like that. There should be someone who motivates his players to be fit. Players should be proud of their captain.”
The 1983 World Cup-winning Indian captain said that if Rohit improves his fitness, it will serve as an inspiration for the rest of the Indian cricketers. “I can definitely say that there is a big doubt over Rohit’s fitness. There has been a lot of criticism that he hasn’t scored more runs since becoming the captain, I agree with that but I don’t think it has anything to do with his cricketing skills. The problem is. He is a very successful cricketer. If he gets fit, the whole team will rally around him.”
Kapil advised the youngsters in the Indian team to move forward and not depend on Rohit and Kohli to win the World Cup. Rohit last played for India in the second ODI against Bangladesh.
He could not play in the third ODI due to injury. He also did not play in the T20I series against Sri Lanka due to injury. Now he is ready to return in the ODI series against Sri Lanka.
Rohit’s form and fitness will be in focus as he is one of India’s key players in the ODI World Cup to be held in October-November this year.