Captaincy an added responsibility, Rohit Sharma should not lose focus on his batting: Ex-India selector

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has had a fabulous start to his tenure as India's full-time captain. Rohit, who too over as the T20I captain of the side in November last year, has led the team to three back-to-back T20I series wins at home against New Zealand, West Indies and Sri Lanka while also winning his first ODI series as full-time captain 3-0 against West Indies.

India have been unstoppable so far in white-ball cricket under Rohit's captaincy. The Men in Blue defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets in the third and final T20I on Sunday to complete a 3-0 whitewash against the visitors and equal the record for most T20I wins in a row. It was India's 11th consecutive victory in the shortest format.

While India have been a force to reckon with under Rohit's leadership, his personal form has come under the scanner. Rohit failed to score runs consistently in the recently-concluded T20I series against Sri Lanka and his numbers in the last three T20I series have also not been great as per his standards.

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Former India selector Saba Karim has urged the Indian skipper to not lose focus on his batting and treat captaincy as only an added responsibility. Karim said Rohit's spot in the playing XI is because of his batting and that the Indian skipper should work on his game ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022 where his runs will be crucial for the team.

"Rohit Sharma is in the XI because of his batting. Captaincy is an additional responsibility. He should not lose focus with regards to batting. Lot of times we have seen that captains are not able to perform as well in their primary skill. This should not happen," Karim said on theKhelneeti podcast.

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“This is just the starting phase for Rohit Sharma. He will gradually realize how important his runs are for the team. His performance will be crucial in Australia (during the T20 World Cup), where the grounds are big and the opposition have top-quality bowlers. So yes, Rohit Sharma needs to work on this area," he added.

India will next take on Sri Lanka in a two-match Test series that gets underway from March 04. It will be Rohit's first major assignment as India's Test captain and the Hitman will be hoping to get off to a winning start in the longest format as well.