Former Indian spin bowler Pragyan Ojha remembers some advice given to him by Indian captain Rohit Sharma when they were both playing in the Under-19 team. Ojha first played for India on June 28, 2008, in a match against Bangladesh during the Asia Cup in Karachi. He went on to play 24 Test matches, 18 One Day Internationals (ODIs), and six Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) for the Indian team. He took 113 wickets in Test matches, 21 in ODIs, and 10 in T20Is. Ojha’s last game for India was in 2013 against the West Indies, during Sachin Tendulkar’s final Test match at the Wankhede Stadium.
Since retiring from international cricket, Ojha has become a cricket expert and commentator. He was part of the commentary team for Sony during the recent ODI series between India and Sri Lanka.
While providing commentary, Ojha, who has been teammates with current India captain Rohit Sharma during their time with the Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indians, and the Indian national team, reminisced about the past. He mentioned that during their U-19 days, Rohit advised him that to have a long career playing for India, he needed to be a match-winner.
“The best advice I got was from Rohit Sharma when we were playing U19 cricket. He told me, ‘Everyone wants to play for the country since we’ve reached the U19 level. But if you want to play for India for a long time, you need to be a match-winner,'” Ojha recalled.
Rohit, who became the third Indian captain to win an ICC trophy in June, returned to play in the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka earlier this month. In all three matches, he scored the highest for the Indian team. However, despite his strong performance with the bat, India faced surprising losses in the second and third ODIs held at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on August 4 and 7.
Download the CricInformer app
Take CricInformer with you. Get our app for cricket news and updates on your phone.