The Indian one-day team’s first full practice session started with the fielding coach rolling the ball to Rohit Sharma and the former captain hitting bulls’ eye – the centre of the middle stump. Echoes of the cheers and claps from teammates and coaches filled the air. Rohit – leaner, sharper and fitter – nodded his head and mockingly raised his hand.
These days, Rohit – at 38 – has a frame that is a throwback to the days when he hit the national headlines as a slender Borivali boy with incredible grace and perfect elbow position. This wasn’t the case late last year, when he played his last Test during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The next 10 months would see a lifestyle change – all to keep playing his favourite format, the ODIs.
Last month, before he was to return to Australia for the one-day series, Rohit got a call from a friend with plans to go out for a meal. He would turn down the invitation, saying he prefers to eat healthy home food. The friend thought it was a joke. It wasn’t. Rohit has not been this serious ever.
Those who had a face-to-face with him in Australia say he seemed to have lost 10 kg. At Ranchi, it seemed more. Such dramatic ‘before and after’ transformation hadn’t taken place even when was the Test captain or during the phase when he became an IPL legend. It shows what ODIs mean to Rohit. That’s the only format he plays for India now, and he isn’t going to give up in a hurry.
There have been speculations about his ODI future and bets were being placed on him lasting till the 2027 ODI World Cup. His 121 in the final game of the Australia series has changed the narrative and equations.
Rohit seemed to have made peace with playing under a young captain, Shubman Gill. It was first seen in Australia and it was evident in Ranchi too. During the rain-delay in the Melbourne game, the cameras panned on Rohit having a hearty laugh with a giggling Gill next to him and even head coach Gautam Gambhir flashing a rare smile. From being the captain to his new status as the team’s experienced elder, this was one transition he was dealing with effortlessly.
On the field, he would mentor young bowlers with pacer Harshit Rana running to him after a dismissal to acknowledge his vital wicket-taking input. At Ranchi, after his long batting stint, Rohit was seen having a long discussion with young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal. He was doing everything, his enthusiasm hadn’t dimmed. Anything for his dear old pal – the ODIs.
Ask any kid from the 1980s or 90s, like Rohit, and they will tell you what the original white-ball format means to them. Those were the two decades when ODIs ruled. Those games would decide a nation’s schedule and have a direct impact on the traffic on roads.
A one-dayer was an all-day family affair. Cricket was on television when one returned from school, and there was no one to bother all afternoon and most of the evening since the entire household sat in a daze watching men in coloured clothing play under floodlights.
The 1990s were easily the most forgettable decade for Indian cricket. From 1990 to 1999, India had a terrible Test record. Among the many former cricketers who moan about the fall of India’s Test fortress at home were part of teams that won next to nothing away back then. It was the dreadful decade where India won just one Test abroad – that too in Sri Lanka.
The ODIs were the elixir that kept cricket alive and kicking. India’s record there wasn’t too flattering either – the 1992 and 1996 World Cups were about Asia’s domination but it was Pakistan and Sri Lanka who took home the Cup. But India had Sachin Tendulkar, who would play those magical white-ball innings that would have foreign commentators crying out loud – “Whattaplayer”.
The 90s was also the time Tendulkar was India’s commissioned one-man army, the lone batting star whose dismissal would result in television sets being switched off around the country. While most of the population would get on with life after the heartbreak, there were a few kids who would get pensive and thoughtful.
Virat Kohli has said how he would process an Indian defeat despite Tendulkar’s efforts. He couldn’t sleep, he would lay in bed dreaming how he would one day finish those tight India games.
Before the 2023 ODI World Cup, Rohit had spoken to this newspaper about his initiation to cricket through ODIs.
“I used to watch ODIs with my uncles and grandfather. Cricket was 24×7. ODIs was the main exciting thing then. I really loved it. They would discuss strategies and tactics, what worked, what didn’t work, and I would absorb all that. As I grew up, I would also share my views. We used to watch only cricket. New match, old ones, highlights … talk, discuss, watch, learn. Yehi chalta rehta tha,” he would recall.
It has been a while since those joint-family days in Borivali. Rohit is doing his best to not part ways with his first love. It’s still “chalta rehta hai”.
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