Former India captain Dilip Vengasarkar feels that India captain Rohit Sharma should be allowed to decide his future on his own. Under Rohit’s leadership, India recently secured their second successive ICC title by winning Champions Trophy 2025. However, things were not well for the India captain heading into the tournament with question marks on his captaincy being raised following the team’s back-to-back Test series loss against New Zealand and Australia.
Despite all the criticism, Rohit led the team admirably well in the tournament and guided India to their third Champions Trophy title with a match-winning knock in the final. Following India’s triumph, Rohit cleared the air on his retirement rumours, saying that he isn’t going anywhere. Recently, Dilip Vengasarkar also shared his thoughts on Rohit’s future in the team, mentioning his excellent leadership and batting form.
The former batter said that while a lot will depend on Rohit’s form and fitness, players like him should be allowed to decide their future.
“I am not an astrologer. A lot of matches to go till the 2027 World Cup. A lot will depend on his form and fitness. It is not fair to say anything at this stage but he has been outstanding as both captain and player. I don’t know why people speculated (on his retirement), it’s unwarranted. A player of his stature should get to decide about his future,” Vengsarkar told PTI.
Furthermore, Vengasarkar said that players like Rohit and Kohli demoralise the opposition with just their presence and praised them as big match players.
“The way he has been playing all this time is nothing short of exemplary. He has got three double hundreds in ODI. What more do I say about him. Guys like Virat and Rohit are big match players, bigger the platform the better the performance. It is very important from team’s point of view. Their sheer presence is demoralising the opposition,” said Vengsarkar, who is also a former chief selector who tracked both Rohit and Kohli in their early days,” he added.
Rohit didn’t have a memorable tournament in the lead up to the final, having scored just 104 runs from four innings at an average of 26. However, in the summit clash, he led his team from the front with his sublime innings of 76 (83), studded with seven fours and three sixes. Following his match-winning knock, he has gained two places and climbed to the third spot in ICC ODI rankings for batters while Shubman Gill continues to hold pole position.
