Rohit Sharma Captain Cool

He’s risen up the ranks steadily, from lackluster Test performances to becoming the highest scorer in ODIs, and the IPL’s most successful captain. But it was a single decision, taken for him when he was a year old, that put Rohit Sharma on this path.

- Abhishek Mande Bhot

On the morning of December 10 last year, Rohit Sharma walked out of the dressing room of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala with the team sheet in his hand. He had spent most of the morning staring at the sheet with some disbelief. Time, as it does on those rare occasions, had slowed down, and the walk from the dressing room to the ground took what seemed like hours. He was still staring at it when Jeff Crowe, the match referee, broke his dreamlike state: “It’s time, Rohit.” It was a bright winter morning and the Himalayas made for an impressive backdrop to the already picturesque stadium. The crowds had just begun to pour in when Sharma tossed the coin. For the next few seconds it seemed as if everything had fallen silent; as if every single moment of his life so far had led him to this one point, a point that had been documented for posterity on the sheet he continued holding in his right hand: Rohit Sharma was captaining the Indian cricket team.

Listening to Sharma talk is like reading a Dirk Gently novel. Much like the beloved Douglas Adams character, he’s drawn by “the fundamental interconnectedness of all things”. If his grandfather hadn’t decided to raise him, if his uncle hadn’t borrowed money to enrol him in a cricket camp, if the bowlers’ queue at the camp selection hadn’t been short, if his coach hadn’t backed him up, if the admissions director at the school hadn’t offered him a scholarship, if he hadn’t changed schools even though it broke his heart to do so… He wouldn’t be where he is – travelling the world, representing the country and carrying the dreams of a billion people. He genuinely believes it. “It’s a rare honour,” Sharma told Murali Kartik in Dharamsala. “And it’s a great responsibility.”