'People like Kohli are institutions for Indian cricket'

Former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly lauded Rohit Sharma's leadership qualities for India's unbeaten run in the ongoing T20 World Cup final.

Ganguly also emphasized the importance of India playing with freedom in the summit clash against South Africa.

"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," Ganguly said.

The former BCCI president, revealed that Rohit was initially hesitant to take on the captaincy after Virat Kohli stepped down.

"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," Ganguly explained.

"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," he added.

Ganguly acknowledged that winning IPL titles can sometimes be more challenging due to the tournament's extended format.

"Rohit has the record of winning five IPL titles, which is a huge achievement. Winning an IPL sometimes is more difficult. Don't misquote me, I'm not saying IPL is better than international cricket," Ganguly clarified.

"But you have to win 16-17 (12-13) matches to win an IPL; here you need to win 8-9 matches to win a World Cup. The honour is more in winning the World Cup, and I hope Rohit does it tomorrow," he said.

Ganguly jokingly expressed his belief that Rohit wouldn't handle losing two World Cup finals in a short span.

"I don't think he can lose two World Cup finals in seven (six) months. He will probably jump into the Barbados ocean if he loses two finals under his captaincy in seven months," Ganguly said in a lighter vein.

"He has led from the front, batted brilliantly, and I hope it continues tomorrow. Hope India finishes on the right side, and they should play with freedom," he added.

Since their Champions Trophy victory in 2013, India has reached the final of the 2014 T20 World Cup, the 2023 50-over World Cup, and the WTC final twice, but haven't been able to convert them into wins.

"I look at it differently. At least we are getting to the finals, we can only win once we get to the final," Ganguly said in defense of the team's recent record.

While star batsman Virat Kohli hasn't been in top form during the World Cup as an opener, Ganguly believes Kohli shouldn't be dropped down the batting order.

"Virat should continue to open. He just had a World Cup of 700 runs seven months ago. He is human. Sometimes, he will also fail, and you have to accept it," Ganguly said.

"People like Kohli, Tendulkar, (Rahul) Dravid, they are institutions for Indian cricket. Three-four matches don't make them weaker players. Don't rule him out in the final tomorrow," Ganguly added with confidence in Kohli.

The final promises to be a historic one, with South Africa reaching their first-ever World Cup final, 32 years after their return to international cricket.

"It's a huge moment for South African cricket. Imagine a team that came back to international cricket in 1992, and it took them 32 years to play in a World Cup final. So, it's going to be a big day for both teams," Ganguly concluded.