Rohit Sharma is one of the three survivors of the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007. The other two are Dinesh Karthik and Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan. Having travelled the full distance so far in the ICC competition has given him the opportunity to score runs and be one of the leading stars of the tournament.
The right-hander comes into the eighth edition of the T20 World Cup as the highest scorer (847 runs) – Mahela Jayawardena (1016 runs) and Chris Gayle (965) have retired — and looking forward to adding a lot more to the aggregate and show the way for his team in quest of its second Twenty20 trophy that Mahendra Singh Dhoni won in Johannesburg defeating Pakistan in the final in 2007.
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Sharma took over the reins of the Indian team after the Men in Blue floundered and faltered in the first two matches of the 2021 tournament in the United Arab Emirates against Pakistan and New Zealand. It was the beleaguered Virat Kohli’s last T20 tournament as India captain and Sharma became the natural choice to succeed him.
After the inglorious exit from the last year’s competition, Sharma has scored 699 runs in 26 matches/ innings with half-centuries. He tries to dominate in the first six over the power play segment. After a few bright knocks — 48, 55, 56, and 40 were his score in his first four innings as captain from the home series against New Zealand in November 2021- but in the next 22 innings, he fell to lesser scores trying to take on the bowling. A bang, band start from Sharma will do a world of good to his team.
Sharma’s Pakistani counterpart Babar Azam has been in equally good nick since the last edition of the competition in the gulf region. Azam has piled up 763 runs in 26 matches/ innings with one century and five half-centuries and after an unsatisfactory showing in the Asia Cup, he has returned to form scoring 477 runs in 12 matches leading to his team’s opening campaign against India at the MCG on Sunday. Azam cracked an unbeaten 68 in his team’s ten-wicket win against India in October 2021, but India dismissed him cheaply in the two Asia Cup outings last month.
The England captain Jos Buttler — he succeeded Eoin Morgan — had a terrific IPL for Rajasthan Royals and he has turned out to be consistent with the bat. After three disappointing results against India, he has scored 215 runs in his last six innings for an excellent average of 43 and with a strike rate of 11.03 which is what makes him a force. Buttler has England from 2015 in 14 Twenty20 internationals and seven.
Mohammad Nabi has led Afghanistan in 32 matches and won half of it. He has scored 405 runs and taken 20 wickets. He has played 101 matches and that is his biggest strength; experience. He has not scored a half-century in his last 28 innings.
Andrew Balbirnie has been part of the Ireland team for 82 matches and he has led in 45 and won 18. He has scored 1711 runs with seven 50-plus scores. It will be a tough ask on his team to run roughshod in the Super 12 stage of the competition and enter the semi-finals. He has scored 546 as an opener and 1125 runs at No.3. His task too is cut out as he leads Ireland in the tournament opener. He has hit 42 x 6s and 188 x 4s.
Craig Ervine, the Zimbabwe captain,37, has scored 235 as an opener, 454 at No.3, 216 at No.4, and 169 at No.5 for an aggregate of 1087 runs in 51 matches/50 innings. Ervine has been around for 12 years and led the team in 24 matches.
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