"Important to keep everyone in good mental space": Rohit Sharma on his captaincy role

Oct 26, 2023

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], October 26 : Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has said that while managing players, it is important to keep everyone in a good mental space and he puts himself in everyone's shoes to understand what they might need.
Rohit has earned praise both for his brisk batting and captaincy during the World Cup.
India will take on England in their World Cup match on Sunday. India have won all five of their matches so far, England has had a disastrous campaign having lost four of their five matches.
Speaking on Star Sports show 'Follow the Blues', Rohit said it is very important to hear everyone out and understand what they want.
"I think when it comes to managing players, it is quite important that you understand the individual first and their requirement, what are the likes and dislikes of that particular individual because you know in a team sport it is just not about one or two individuals or few individuals, it is about everyone. We do understand as well that when you want to win championships, big tournaments, everyone needs to come to the party and play their part. So, it is important that you keep everyone in good mental space," he said.
Rohit said he acquired some captaincy skills with experience.
"It is very important to hear everyone out, understand what they want, how they want to operate and things like that and then you take everything into consideration and move forward and that is something that I always do. I try and put myself in their shoes and think about what this individual will be needing now. So, it is important to think like that and you know luckily, I have got a good bunch of guys around me; the players, the support staff are quite understanding in terms of the requirement of the team, the players and everyone.
"That is something that I would not say comes naturally to me, I have learned it over the years, gone through my personal experiences and understood what is needed for a team to be successful. I think what is needed to be successful is to understand everyone's need, their requirement and give them that space and freedom to go and execute their job and their roles. It can be quite daunting at times because when you are playing such a high-profile tournament, the pressure can get to you at times. So, it is important to just stay together as a team, understand what each one needs to be in that good zone where they can come out and play free cricket and not worry about what is happening outside," he concluded.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.
England squad: Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Brydon Carse, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.