NEW DELHI: Chasing a second ICC title in seven months,
Rohit Sharma
and his team will be desperate to end India's over-a-decade long trophy drought as they take on South Africa in the
T20 World Cup final
in Barbados on Saturday.
Putting behind the heartbreak of the ODI World Cup final defeat in November last year, Rohit has superbly led the Indian side in the Americas in their unbeaten run to the summit clash.
To go with that, Rohit has fired a couple of sensational knocks in the run up to the summit clash. A fiery 92 against Australia and a responsible 57 in the semis against England, Rohit has looked a class apart recently.
And former England skipper
Nasser Hussain
recently lauded Rohit -- the batter and the leader -- for his superb show in the ongoing ICC's cricketing extravaganza.
"I have been a fan of Rohit for a very long time, as a batter, as a captain, and as a person. He seems to have a very calming influence. Whereas you had other captains, maybe like Virat, who wore their heart on their sleeves, and they are incredibly passionate," Nasser said in a video posted by ICC.
"Rohit is like that iron fist in a velvet glove. You do not mess around with Rohit, but he is also a big brother that will put his arm around you and look after you," Nasser said.
Both India and South Africa go into the finale unbeaten.
Team India
is eyeing their first global trophy since winning the Champions Trophy in 2013.
Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly on Friday also backed Rohit to end India's ICC title-less run.
"I'm very happy for Rohit Sharma. Life comes full circle. Six months ago he was not even the captain of Mumbai Indians and the same man is now leading India to a World Cup final, unbeaten," news agency PTI quoted Ganguly as saying.
"He has played two World Cup finals where he has gone into the final unbeaten. That speaks of his captaincy and leadership quality and I'm not surprised because he became captain when I was the BCCI president and when Virat didn't want to captain India anymore.
"It took a lot of time to make him captain because he was not ready to captain. It took a lot of pushing from all of us to make him captain and I'm very happy to see the progress of Indian cricket under him," Ganguly said.
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