Jay Shah On Rohit Sharma PtiImage Credit source: PTI

Only a few days are left for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026. This tournament will start from 7th February in India and Sri Lanka. Team India will enter this tournament this time as the defending champion, but captain Rohit Sharma, who won it the title, will not be a part of this tournament. Rohit had retired from T20 cricket only after the last World Cup. But ICC Chairman Jai Shah still considers Rohit as the captain. In an event just before the T20 World Cup, Jay Shah called Rohit as captain. Current T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav was also present in this event.

Recently an event was organized by Reliance Foundation in Mumbai. In this event from the Foundation India's world champion teams Was honored. This included the T20 World Cup Champion under the captaincy of Rohit, the Women's World Champion under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur and the Blind Women's World Champion team under the captaincy of Deepti KC, who were honored by the Reliance Foundation.

Why did Jai Shah call Rohit the captain?

The World Cup winning captains and most of the players of those teams were present in this event. Jai Shah, who was the BCCI secretary at that time, was also included. In such a situation, when it was Jai Shah's turn to speak on stage, he declared Rohit as his captain and there was a special reason for it. Shah said, "Our captain is sitting here. I will only call him captain because he has won 2 trophies. After 10 consecutive wins in 2023 (World Cup), we won hearts but did not win the trophy. In February 2024, I had said in Rajkot that this time we will win hearts and also the cup."

Jay Shah 🗣️: our captain Rohit Sharma is sitting here. I am still calling you captain because under you, we won two ICC trophies.

Jay Shah is grateful to Rohit Sharma for ending the drought of ICC trophies for India 🥹🇮🇳pic.twitter.com/7xjVZdjkwQ

— Kusha Sharma  (@Kushacritic) January 8, 2026

Will Suryakumar Yadav continue the trend?

Under the captaincy of Rohit, the Indian team won the first T20 World Cup 2024 title. This was India's first ICC title since 2013. Then in March 2025, Team India again won the Champions Trophy under the captaincy of Rohit. In this way, the drought of titles that had been going on for years not only ended, but a new series also started.

Now the responsibility of continuing this series is on Suryakumar Yadav. This tournament is going to be very special for them and for Team India because not only will they play at home, but will also defend the title in front of their fans. In such a situation, India has a chance to become the first team to win the T20 World Cup at home and Surya has a chance to become the first captain.