It’s the afternoon of November 19, 2023. The place: Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The occasion: the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup between India and Australia. After losing the early wicket of Shubman Gill, India’s captain Rohit Sharma has been striking at over 150 and has contributed 63 per cent of his team’s total. India is 76 for one in the ninth over. Rohit has just hit Maxwell for a six and a four off the previous two balls. The momentum is shifting.

In the alternative history of this game, this is the point at which India, energised by Rohit’s no-holds-barred approach and the exhortations of Virat Kohli, who is batting on 23 off 20 at this point, seize the moment and, with it, control of the innings. With Australia forced to fall back on the defensive, Rohit and Kohli feast on the open spaces before the middle-order hitters tear into the middling Australians and run out comfortable winners in front of a rocking crowd of 100,000.

In actual history, this is the point at which Maxwell bowls a flighted delivery angling away from Rohit, who, true to his aggressive stroke-play throughout the competition, steps out for a loft towards wide mid-on but can only slice it to Travis Head, who takes a blinder running back from point. Rohit goes for 47 off 31 and takes the momentum back with him, as India fall short of the title at home.

So, in what was the rivals’ first meaningful encounter since that World Cup final night, the final Super 8 game of Group 1 at the Darren Sammy ground in Gros Islet, St Lucia, when Kohli was caught for a five-ball duck in the second over off Josh Hazlewood, Indian fans would have been forgiven for thinking, “Oh no, not this again.” And at the other end was that man again, Rohit.

Losing the ODI World Cup final to Australia was hard for Rohit Sharma. “It wasn’t easy to digest, but life moves on. You have to move on in life. But, honestly, it was tough. It was not so easy to just move on,” Rohit said in a social media video. Yet, the final defeat was the kind of crisis in which Rohit could fulfil his highest ambitions of helping the team understand the challenges to fix the future course.

He took a giant stride towards doing just that when he got up and running in the third over with back-to-back sixes over covers off Mitchell Starc. With two more maximums in the same over, it cost 29 runs. It didn’t matter that there was a strong cross-breeze; it didn’t matter that the first two maximums came against the wind or that the last one was top-edged. Rohit had laid down the gauntlet. He wouldn’t relent on his attacking intent and was on course to break Chris Gayle’s 47-ball record for the fastest century in a men’s T20 World Cup when Starc returned to get Rohit for 92 off just 41 balls. “He targeted the boundary with the wind for a while,” Hazlewood later said. “Then we reacted, and then he hit a few (towards) the other side as well. He’s a class act, and you expect him to do that a couple of times through a tournament.”

India’s Rohit Sharma in action during the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 final.
| Photo Credit:
VIJAY SONEJI/The Hindu

The foundation was laid for India’s 24-run win, confirming a spot in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup, where it will face a familiar opponent in England in Guyana on June 27. The 19-ball fifty during the innings was the fastest of Rohit’s T20 career. It is also the fastest fifty by any batter in the 2024 T20 World Cup. “The fifties and hundreds don’t matter; I wanted to bat with the same tempo and carry on. You want to make big scores, yes, but at the same time you want to make the bowlers think where the next shot is coming, and I think I managed to do that,” Rohit said after the Australia game.

He is right. In the last 12 months, across white-ball formats, Rohit’s robust approach has helped take a lot of pressure off the middle order. India’s spirited run in the ODI World Cup last year was a by-product of that conscious change in mindset. Rohit struck at over 130 in the PowerPlay in the 11 matches, averaging just under 90 while hitting 35 fours and 14 sixes. It allowed Kohli to play according to the team’s demands.

India’s captain Rohit Sharma during the T20 Cup 2024 Super 8 match against Australia.
| Photo Credit:
DEEPAK KR/The Hindu

In the ongoing T20 World Cup, the depth and diversity of India’s batting, coupled with its power-hitting abilities, have allowed Rohit to try and replicate the same template. India is unbeaten heading into the World Cup semifinal against England. In a bit of symmetry, the origins of Rohit and India’s bold approach can be traced back to Adelaide, 2022, where they were handed a 10-wicket thrashing by England in the T20 World Cup semifinal. Rohit had made 27 off 28 then. He will look for retribution and redemption on Thursday.