On the heels of leading India for the first time in an ODI World Cup, Rohit Sharma has seen a lot of highs and lows in his career. Before his career took off in 2013 when he started opening the innings for India in white-ball cricket. One of the biggest heartbreaks for Rohit before 2013 was losing out on a spot in India's World Cup 2011 squad as he missed out narrowly given he played a number of ODIs in the lead-up to the event.
Obviously, Rohit was disappointed and expressed the same on Twitter (X) saying, "Really really disappointed of not being the part of the WC squad..I need to move on frm here..but honestly it was a big setback.." However, the 12-year-old mystery has now been solved by former BCCI selector, Raja Venkat, who revealed that it was the leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, who took the final spot as the fourth spinner alongside the likes of Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin and all-rounder Yuvraj Singh.
Venkat in a chat with RevSportz revealed that it was Dhoni, who wanted an extra spinner in the squad in place of a batter, Rohit Sharma in this case, as the then head coach Gary Kirsten was in favour of having an extra batter in the squad.
"When we sat to select the team, Rohit was very much in the scheme of things. Yashpal Sharma and I were in South Africa at that time because India was touring South Africa, and the other three selectors – Srikkanth, [Surendra] Bhave and [Narendra] Hirwani – were in Chennai. So, when we were selecting the team, numbers 1-14, every name was accepted by the panel. No. 15, we suggested the name of Rohit Sharma. Gary Kirsten also felt it was a perfect selection. But the captain wanted Piyush Chawla. So immediately, Kirsten somersaulted. He said: 'I think that's a better choice.' So, that is how Rohit Sharma got left out," Venkat revealed.
Venkat, who was part of the five-member selection panel including Kris Srikkanth, who was the chairman then, Mohinder Amarnath, Narendra Hirwani and Surendra Bhave, said that they were also disappointed that they couldn't get Rohit into the squad but when the coach and captain wanted Chawla, the committee accepted the change.
"We didn't get a chance to talk to him, but again we were also disappointed that we couldn't select him. But when the captain and coach wanted Piyush as the 15th member, we all accepted it. Initially, we had selected the 15 which we all felt was the right one. Unfortunately, we had to make one change, and we had to give it to the captain and the coach," Venkat said further.
