Rohit Sharma's Legacy Lies In How India Embraced Fearlessness Under Pressure

There is probably a parallel universe in which Rohit Sharma never becomes the captain of the Indian side. 

In that universe, he continues being the OG run-accumulator and ends up retiring with some 13,000 ODI runs and 40 hundreds. He ends up being remembered as one of the greatest batters in the game’s history but his legacy does not extend beyond that. 

Phew. How lucky are we to not exist in that universe and instead find ourselves in a world where we’ve been able to witness this great batter first transform into one of the greatest leaders ever and then turn a great Indian side into one of the greatest ever ODI sides?

The 2013 Champions Trophy was where Rohit Sharma was reborn as a cricketer. 

12 years on, it’s at the very same tournament that Rohit has immortalised himself, ensuring that he will be spoken of and looked back upon as a one-of-a-kind leader.

To address the obvious, yes, Rohit’s 76 today will go down as one of the defining performances of his career. It was a knock that perfectly captured and underscored the incredible leader he’d transformed into: a captain who always takes every challenge head-on, walks the talk, and leads by example.

Yet this won’t be seen as a legacy-defining night because he led from the front by blasting off bowling attacks; he’s been doing that for over two years now. This game will define Rohit’s legacy because, for the first time ever, the entire team bought into *his* philosophy in a big final and won a trophy by playing fearless cricket with the bat in hand. 

Before the victory today in Dubai, the Indian side had consistently been the best team in the world in 50-over cricket but had gone 12 years without winning any silverware in the format. One of the biggest contributors to this was the team’s inherent conservatism. 

To a large extent, India were held back by the fear of failure. It cost them the 2019 World Cup, and despite Rohit’s best efforts, the same disease plagued the side in the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup — India simply were too afraid to press the accelerator at crucial moments. 

This problem extended to T20 cricket as well. The team lost the 2016 and 2022 T20 World Cups because they did not go hard enough while batting first. The Men in Blue broke the trophy jinx at the 2024 T20 World Cup, but even there, their semi-conservative approach after losing early wickets nearly cost the side. They got to a total that was barely par and were able to lift the title only because of a superhuman effort with the ball from Jasprit Bumrah.

Out in the middle today, however, was a side that had completely transformed mentally; a rewired team that had unlearned its past tendencies — to always press the brake under pressure — and had nothing but ‘counterattack’ on its mind when things got tricky. 

Rohit’s legacy lies in the fact that he’s been at the forefront of this transformation.

Tonight in Dubai, Rohit batted the way he’s been batting for the past three years. Yet he was not successful today because he scored 76 off 83 and put India in pole position on a tricky surface.

This was a day that cried out ‘success’ for Rohit because KL Rahul smashed Mitchell Santner for a six instead of trying to block him out. Because Shreyas Iyer smashed Glenn Phillips for a six on the third ball of the 37th over and then immediately attempted another six the very next ball. Because Axar Patel slog-swept Santer for six two balls after the latter dismissed Iyer simply because he matched up well with the left-arm spinner. 

These are things that never have happened in the past, and would certainly have not happened today had Rohit not emphasised on the need for players to shed conservatism and always take the positive option first. 

It’s certainly helped that he’s led the way forward by showing every single one of his teammates how to do it. 

It remains to be seen if Rohit’s form and body will allow him to carry on till the 2027 ODI World Cup. It remains to be seen if the selectors are, first of all, keen for him to carry on, as it will mean keeping Yashasvi Jaiswal out of the ODI team for another couple of years. 

But no matter what happens, this victory will be — or, rather, *should be* — remembered as the day that defines Rohit Sharma, the ODI cricketer. 

If India do go on to hoard 50-over titles for fun over the next decade, this night in Dubai should be seen as a watershed moment, for it was when India fully embraced fearlessness under pressure.