A Roh-ller Coaster Ride

I believe in love at first sight, my wife will attest to that. Same is the case with me while following sports too - be it Sachin, be it Roger Federer or be it Ajit Agarkar(wink!). In 2007, when the cricket carnival had moved to South Africa for a global T20 tournament, I was in hostel not able to catch the action. India went into a must-win game against hosts, with no Yuvraj. They duly collapsed to 33/3 on a spicy pitch. It was "Study Time" in the hostel which meant we could only glance at the mobile to check texts from our friends. Our day-scholar friends were faster than Cricinfo or Yahoo cricket. India won the game comfortably and knocked out South Africa in the process, which looked an impossible scenario a couple of hours before. I had by then, knew the name, knew the score but I was still yet to see him bat. 

Well, that happened a couple of days later, in a Semi- Final against the all conquering Aussies. Nathan Bracken runs into bowl, the batsman clears his front leg and casually lifts the ball over long on. David Lloyd goes "Oh, they are all at it, they are all at it". Yeah, I had seen enough! This guy was surely gonna take me for a ride! 

Next stop was Australia for CB series. In the first game, Australian pacers are steaming in at the Gabba. Rohit looks at ease, again on a tricky pitch before getting dismissed for 29, a delightful cameo. 

Few weeks later, he and Sachin put on a match winning partnership to win a final against Australia, in Australia. Ian Chappell had seen enough! 

The thing with love is that it puts you to test, but when it came to Rohit, it ended up as a full blown engineering course. There were occasional fireworks, again on a bouncy track, again against Australia. They were like the random birthday wishes you get on Facebook, just to remind you about their existence.  

After the high of the World Cup win in 2011, success against West Indies didn't matter, even when he was the lone ranger most of the times. Two MoS performances were forgotten in the blink of an eye.

Disaster was predicted in 2012 and it did materialize, for Rohit. He couldn't buy a run! "He can score only in IPL, he can score only against West Indies" chorus grew louder. It felt like the end, but as it turned out, it was just the beginning. Mahendra Singh Dhoni had seen enough.. 

2013 dawned, and the New Year came bearing gifts, an opportunity to open the innings in white ball. An opportunity that was once presented to the man he idolised growing up. Just like him, Rohit scored eighty-odd.. 

A few decent if not spectacular performances later, his spot in the team was sealed. 

A colleague of mine told me he was not fit for ODIs, especially in a position that used to be occupied by a certain explosive player named Sehwag. "Diwali 2013" came calling, I rang up that colleague, wished him "Happy Diwali" while Ravi Shastri was bellowing, "They call him Hit-Man and he has arrived to the party".

A year later, with him injured and a World Cup in Australia looming, questions were being raised as Rahane had amassed runs in his absence. On his comeback game, with him getting stuck in single digits, the same colleague was smiling knowingly at me. Three hours later only one of us was smiling, and it wasn't my colleague. 264 was the new 400*.

A month before the World Cup and after a below average performance in the test series, Rohit fronted up at MCG, in coloured clothes. With little support, he essayed 138, in a match I will always remember forever. It was the last game my father watched with me. He had seen me idolize Sachin, he had seen me go crazy for Agarkar and finally he saw me getting pumped up watching a Rohit innings. 

2015 and 2016 established him as one of most important members of the ODI team but an injury meant that his stocks weren't always sky rocketing. 

2017 changed that, despite a failure in the CT final. He racked up centuries series after series, including a special 147, very special because it came a day before my wedding. 

After dominating 2018, a question of different sort was raised, whether his scoring tempo would adversely impact India's success in 2019 World Cup which was expected to be a high scoring tournament. That was answered emphatically with five centuries, but it still wasn't enough. 648 runs with nothing to show for. The lasting image was that of him leaning on the dressing room balcony in absolute despair. 

Watching him bat in ODI always felt therapeutical for me but by 2020 the ODIs took a back seat. Meanwhile he altered his game with remarkable success to re-ignite his Test career, this time as an opener. That story is for another day, though. 

At the same time, he modified his T20 game, with below par returns, not an auspicious sign heading into another World Cup year. Whispers about him being finished as a white ball batter were growing louder. 

I have always believed, that after following him for more than 16 years, nothing will come as a surprise for me when it comes to his batting. I was wrong. 2023 was a surprise. As a T20 opener he had set himself a target to try and attack the Power play. He has taken that idea to his ODI game but has executed differently. Instead of trying to go across the line, he has backed himself to launch with his conventional strokes, head position in perfect harmony. And that has made all the difference. 

This coupled with a clarity of mind has made him a force that has blown away more than a few bowling plans. There is only one team left standing, and of course, again it is Australia. 

When Rohit was to debut as a test opener, a Twitter mutual tweeted to me, "If this move, at this stage of his career with his weaknesses turns out to be successful, there is nothing more I would ever want from a sport".

I would like to borrow that thought - if Rohit could lift the World Cup trophy as a captain on 19th November, there is nothing more I would ever want from a sport.  My dad will surely approve from up above...