A clip of Rohit Sharma dancing with his wife, Ritika Sajdeh, to a Punjabi song has gone viral. Rohit took a leave from his captaincy duty to attend his brother-in-law’s wedding, and he’ll be back before the second ODI versus Australia.

Under Rohit’s captaincy, India clinched the prestigious Border-Gavaskar trophy earlier this month. He scored what was the best century of the entire series, on a very tough pitch in Nagpur, and set the tone for the rest of the series. He will join the Indian team in a couple of days. After the ODI series, he will be seen leading the Mumbai Indians side in the Indian Premier League 2023.

It’s going to be an important tournament for Rohit. Even though he has been among the most successful captains, he hasn’t been able to put up a show with the bat. In the last four years, he hasn’t averaged over 30 and the last time his strike rate crossed over 130 for a season was in 2018. He hasn’t crossed the 400-run mark since 2019. 

In Rohit’s absence, Hardik Pandya is leading the team in the first ODI of the three-match series at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. It is going to be an important match for Pandya, as the team management will be paying close attention to how he goes about his business. 

While Rohit is currently the Indian captain in all three formats, it is likely that India will relieve him for the captaincy duty in T20s, and appoint Pandya, who led Gujarat Titans to the IPL championships last year. If India wins the first ODI against Australia, it will further Pandya’s leadership claim.

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar also opined that Hardik has the potential to be India’s captain. “He can be an impact player as well as a game changer in the middle-order. Even for the Gujarat team, he was promoting himself up the order knowing that this is the time when the team needed some momentum and push, and he would do that,” said Gavaskar.