'That was my mistake': Rohit Sharma's childhood coach shares how he discovered the batter inside future India captain
NEW DELHI: India's ODI captain
Rohit Sharma
's journey to becoming one of modern cricket's most destructive openers almost took a very different path. His childhood coach, Dinesh Lad, has revealed that he first spotted Rohit not with a bat in hand, but as a promising off-spinner — and only discovered his batting talent by chance, much later.
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Speaking on a YouTube podcast with Gaurav Manglani, Lad recalled: 'I first saw him as a bowler, he was about 12 years old. I saw him playing a match against us. Then I told his uncle (Chacha) to get him admitted to my school. The school started in 1995, and I saw Rohit in 1999. He took admission that year. In the first year, he was in under 14. During practice, I kept making him bowl.
Next year, Rohit went to 8th standard and was 14 years old.
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The turning point came unexpectedly. 'One day, while entering the school, I saw a boy knocking (batting). From outside, I saw the bat was coming very straight and good. I didn't know it was Rohit at first. When I went inside, I asked him if he was batting. He said yes, sir. Then I gave him some batting in the nets at number six or seven. Before that, I had never given him batting practice.
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That was my mistake,' Lad admitted.
Rohit soon proved his worth with the bat. 'He batted well. In a match, he went in at number seven and scored 40 runs — a very good 40. The way he was batting, I felt he had a very good talent for batting. A thought came to my mind: it would be good to make him open. He was very happy when I asked, and scored 140 runs as an opener. That's when I knew he should focus more on batting.'
The rest, as they say, is history — with Rohit Sharma going on to become one of the finest opening batters of his era, famed for his elegance, timing, and unmatched pull shot.
Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
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