A long due ode to en erstwhile enigma of sports, who for the
first five years of his career might have given more income to the stand-up
comedians and trollers than he did for himself.
As a sports fanatic, I have a hierarchy spread in terms of
allegiance I have for Sports personalities & teams.
Top of the list & a thing of beauty that would never return
to full-fledged action would be Stefan Edberg. I don't think in my limited view
of sports, I have seen a more graceful poetic movement in a sports arena.
Followed by that for a neck to neck tie is the Indian Cricket
team and Liverpool football club, who don the Silver medal by the narrowest of
margins. Will torment about these two in a later post.
Before I get to the bronze, I would like to make some honorable
mentions of Yuvraj Singh, VVS Laxman, Mohd Azharuddin, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni
and Sachin Tendulkar in that very order, who I really adored to watch during
their peak and had an emotional connection.
The bronze, however, should go to the one and only Rohit Gurnath
Sharma, the Hit-man. Strangely enough, the nickname he has is a big irony given
the grace he gets to batting and the time he has to play his languid and
exquisite stroke play.
He is probably the only reason for me to still follow Indian
cricket even on non-ICC events and sometimes those meaningless bilateral events
which India plays so very frequently these days.
My first tryst with Rohit was when he was a teenager in the T20
world cup where I think he scored a crucial 50 in a must-win encounter against
South Africa on his debut and won the MOTM and also scored a crucial 30 in the
finals against Pak to propel the score to 154 or thereabout to give his team a
fighting chance.
Though people were in awe of Robin Uttapah during those times,
Rohit's backlift, his lazy allegiance & I guess subconsciously, his
connection to the Telugu/Hyderabad/Vizag roots did have a strong reason for me
to follow this guy. Not to mention a calm, unruffled demeanor.
I remember doing a lot of fire fighting for this guy with a lot
of friends who felt he is a burden to the team and a talent which was never
backed by attitude etc and thanks to the masterstroke of MSD (probably to get
one up in his cold war with Viru) Rohit opened the innings in ICC Champions
trophy 2013 and he never looked back.
He may not be as effective as his captain Virat Kohli yet in
terms of winning games single-handedly or his mentor MSD to pull a rabbit out
of hat from unfavorable situations but he definitely has the wherewithal to
perform under pressure.
To know the true worth this guy has, one needs to watch all his
100s he scored against Australia in Australia (Channel 9 commentary being must
instead of the nasal Laxman Sivaram Krishnan commentary).
I can't single out one fabulous knock he played from the many but
for me, the most hilarious anecdote is his first double hundred in Bangalore
when my significant other, took a leave on what was a Friday to watch her
favorite Virat Kohli bat and when India was one down & I received a
message from her which read "Ben Stokes" Rohit Sharma, I quickly
checked cricbuzz to realize that Rohit ran Virat out.
Of course two hours later when I was in Chutneys In-orbit, I
enjoyed what would be his first double hundred.
Today is a tip of Iceberg of what Rohit could possibly do and
this is precisely what we expected from Sachin Tendulkar when he was at the
prime of his prowess. Treat India with the Rabbit out of hat victories when the
backs were against the wall. But then expecting that would be like expecting
rain from Sun God and hence came the finishers in Yuvraj Virat MSD and to a
lesser degree Rohit and Raina.
India never had its Miandad, Inzamamul Haq, Alan Lamb, Neil
Fairbrother or even Basit Ali, but thanks to the current generation superstars
we have all of them to the power infinity and more.
Rohit Sharma might have had a fabulous world cup but if he would
have added another to his tally in the semi-finals or finals in a winning cause
for India, he would have been on par with the Kapil Devs, Yuvrajs, MSDs and
Virat's in the great Indian folklore of limited over champion match winners!
Just hope he plays long
enough to up the proverbial ante and rubs his shoulders alongside the true
greats of Whiteball limited over cricketers!!
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