'He Has Been Brilliant': Cheteshwar Pujara Praises Rohit Sharma's Captaincy

India cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara has lauded Rohit Sharma for his astute captaincy in the middle overs in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

Pujara says that the middle overs are where teams often lose the plot.

However, the return of KL Rahul and Rohit’s brilliant captaincy has prevented India from letting matches slip in the middle overs.

While speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Pujara said, “He (Rohit) has been brilliant, not just in this game (vs England in Lucknow). If you look at the way he has led the team in the entire World Cup.”

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Rohit has in superb form with the bat too. Opening the innings, he has smashed 398 runs at 66.33 in the six matches so far.

Apart from Rohit’s batting prowess, Pujara is also impressed with the skipper’s ability to bring in seamers.

He quoted the example of Mohammed Siraj, suggesting how Rohit has utilised him in the middle overs to get breakthroughs.

“It’s about how Rohit uses him (Siraj) in the middle overs. Whenever Rohit has used Siraj in the middle overs, he has given the breakthrough”, Pujara said.

Rohit and company faced England in their sixth game of the World Cup tournament in Lucknow on Sunday.

While playing at the Ekana Stadium, India were put in to bat first – the first time they have done so in the ongoing competition.

Things weren’t off to a great start for the Men in Blue as Shubman Gill was bowled for 9 runs in 13 balls by Chris Woakes in the fourth over.

Next up, it was Virat Kohli who exited for a duck.

England bowlers David Willey, Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid didn’t let the batters get comfortable, scalping wickets in frequent intervals.

Despite putting on a brilliant show, they were unable to contain Rohit Sharma who smashed 87 runs against the defending champions. His heroic innings helped India secure a competitive total of 229 runs.

England were looking almost destined to pick up their second win of the tournament but Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami had other plans.

Bumrah dismissed Dawid Malan and Joe Root in successive balls in the fifth over to disrupt England’s momentum. Next, Shami scalped four more wickets to help his side dismiss the entire team at a total of 129 runs. The two pacers shared seven wickets between them to help India to a dominant 100-run win.

India will face Sri Lanka next on November 2 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.