“Your past does not equal your future” is as relevant to sports as it is to any other discipline. Past laurels will enhance an athlete’s legacy, but in team games, resting on them without focusing on current form and long-term planning to extend a career will not only hold the unit from moving forward but could undo the athlete’s accomplishments.

Rohit will be 37 by the time the 2024 T20 World Cup gets underway. Of course, cricketers have managed to play well into their late thirties. Dinesh Karthik is 37. Unlike Karthik, however, Rohit does not merely play for India in Test cricket and ODIs but also leads them across formats. Rohit’s fitness concerns, coupled with India’s enviable depth, allows him to walk away from one format without weakening the squad.

When he assuming the role after the 2021 T20 World Cup, Rohit’s mantra to turn around the fortunes of India’s T20I team was to ask his players take more risks early on. They have managed to turn it around wonderfully: the top seven have struck at 145, the second-highest in the world in this period, behind only South Africa. In 2022, their strike rate of 146 has been the best. However, that has been despite Rohit, who has scored at under 140 in 27 games.

Even in the IPL, Rohit’s batting returns have been below par. The last time he averaged over 30 and struck at over 135 in an IPL season was in 2015. He has scored in the 120s over the last four years, and his average dropped to 19.14 this year. He is not at his devastating best anymore, though his success as captain has helped him avoid scrutiny.

Back in 2017, Virat Kohli had said about Rohit on Breakfast With Champions. “When Rohit was bursting onto the scene, we had a lot of curiosity. Everyone would say this player is coming up, and we were very curious, as we were also youngsters, and no one was talking about us. During the 2007 T20 World Cup, when I saw him batting, I was mesmerised watching him bat, thinking, ‘don’t say anything about him again.’ When you saw him play, you understood what people were talking about. Amazing. He seems to have an extra 1.5 seconds while batting.”

Yet, of of late, Rohit has seemed hurried, especially against pace. The best batters in the world typically gauge the tricks up a bowler’s sleeve, which allows them that precious extra millisecond. It used to be no different for Rohit. Now, at the T20 World Cup, the opposition has undone him with pace.

His feet remained stuck to the crease against a 145 kph snorter from Haris Rauf. He mistimed a cross-batted hoick against Fred Klaasen’s ball outside the off stump. Lungi Ngidi hurried him with pace. And he failed to create room against a short-pitched ball from Hasan Mahmud and hit to backward point.

The dismissals may seem different, but in every instance, Rohit – once a champion against pace – was not quick enough. In Test cricket and ODIs, the batters can take time to get used to the pace, or even see off their first spell. T20, especially in its contemporary state, offers no such luxury.

There are two 50-over global events lined up over the next three years – the World Cup and the Champions Trophy. Managing the workload by giving up an entire format may not be unwise. Rohit may also pick and choose his T20Is in the next year as the team’s focus will shift to ODIs ahead of the World Cup. In that scenario, it works well for the team to have an entirely different T20I setup, to help the youngsters settle in and understand their roles ahead of the next T20 World Cup.

The IPL has brought forward several talented openers who are ready replacements on the side. Prithvi Shaw’s omission from the squad and Rishabh Pant’s from the XI speaks volumes of the immense bench strength. Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad have been earmarked for the future, and their time is now. The sooner India offer them chances, the better it will be for their overall development.

Rohit’s captaincy record is enviable. His record of winning five IPL trophies is unmatched. However, the last few months have thrown up a worthy successor in Hardik Pandya, who has matured over the last few years. Pandya’s credentials as captain came to the fore during IPL 2022 when he led tournament debutants Gujarat Titans, who were not considered among title favourites ahead of the season.

The Titans went in with five specialist bowlers, at the risk of depleting their batting. With Rahul Tewatia batting at six and Rashid Khan at seven, Pandya often had to bat deep into the innings before cutting loose: he performed both roles superbly. He also bowled brilliantly with both the new and the old, cranking up the pace when needed. And his calming down of Kohli during the recent chase against Pakistan demonstrated the evolution of the brash youngster into a responsible adult.

Not part of India’s Test cricket set-up, Pandya can focus solely on managing the T20I team, helping pick from a set of youngsters, and turning them into a cohesive unit by 2024. Rohit, who also has had his run-ins with injuries of late, might be in and out of the side. Playing under multiple captains and adapting to their demands is never easy for young cricketers.

Segregating formats and captains in a country like India that both plays cricket non-stop and has no dearth of candidates should work out. Even if India go on to clinch the title under Rohit in Australia later this month, it is time to look ahead.

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