Team India, under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, has already won the five-match Test series against England with one match still to go. The series win is special given the fact that the hosts had lost the opening game in Hyderabad despite taking a massive lead of 190 runs in the first innings. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel have been the heroes of the series with the former smashing consecutive double centuries and the latter mustering runs when it mattered the most in Ranchi Test.
The home side has missed Virat Kohli for the entire series while KL Rahul is not playing since the first Test. Even Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja missed a Test each during the series for different reasons and hence, skipper Rohit Sharma is being lauded for leading the team well. The latest entrant to this list is former India cricketer Suresh Raina who feels Rohit has gelled with the youngsters well while pointing out how he has backed and given them confidence as well.
"He is the next MS Dhoni. He has done well. He has been giving a lot of chances to youngsters the way MS Dhoni did. I played a lot of cricket under MS Dhoni. Sourav Ganguly supported his team a lot. Then MS Dhoni came and led from the front. Rohit is going in the right direction. He is a brilliant captain," Raina said.
Suresh Raina also noted the way the team combination hasn't affected despite so many injuries during the series. He was full praise of Rohit Sharma for backing two fast bowlers in Tests contrary to the times when, at one stage, India fielded only one pacer and three to four spinners in the playing XI. "The way he is rotating the players is something I have never seen in the last couple of years. Whenever the fast bowlers came in the last couple of years, we have seen injuries. But Rohit has been managing that really well.
"Earlier, we used to have one fast bowler and 3-4 spinners. Now, he is bringing two fast bowlers. He brought in Siraj and Bumrah. He sent Bumrah back and managed his workload well and then handed debut to Akash Deep," Rahane added.
