'He is a 'team-first' type of captain' - Daren Sammy lavishes praises on Rohit Sharma

West Indies’ two-time T20 World Cup-winning skipper Daren Sammy heaped praises on Indian all-format skipper Rohit Sharma and dubbed him as a ‘team first’ type of leader. Following Virat Kohli's resignation from the position after the completion of the T20 World Cup in the UAE last year, the 35-year-old was named as the all-format captain of Team India.

With the next edition of the T20 World Cup approaching, Rohit Sharma will be in charge of the Men in Blue as they strive to win their first title since the tournament's debut in 2007. India won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 under MS Dhoni’s captaincy, but since then they haven’t claimed an ICC title in this format.

Sammy praised Sharma for his leadership qualities in an interview with Vimal Kumar on the latter’s YouTube channel as he said:

“I love the way he captains. That’s why Mumbai Indians have been one of the most successful IPL franchises. He is not a ‘him-first’ but a ‘team-first’ type of captain. When you have a leader that could motivate men, it doesn’t matter who does the job for the team, the team comes first. And Rohit Sharma comes across like that to me.”

It would be interesting to see how it goes at this year’s World Cup in Australia: Sammy

Since taking over as the team's fulltime captain, Rohit Sharma has succeeded as a skipper in T20Is. Under his leadership, India recently defeated Australia in a series and currently holds a commanding 2-0 lead over South Africa. India has made a conscious effort to be much more attacking, especially with the bat, after their poor T20 World Cup performance in the UAE.

The revamped strategy used by Team India has received mixed reviews. However, Sammy supported the move as he added:

“You have an app on your phone and you have to keep updating it. When they won, that (old) method was okay. But when you have teams that are capable of hitting boundaries, their chances of them scoring quicker than you will always be there. If you consolidate too much, you set yourself back. And if the people consolidating get out, then you have two new batters coming in.”

“If you go hard and try to put the bowlers under pressure early, even if you lose wickets, you are so high in the run-rate, you can still consolidate. That’s what I see has changed with Rohit Sharma and India now. They have the personnel to actually do it. It would be interesting to see how it goes at this year’s World Cup in Australia,” Sammy concluded.