Former India Test captain Rohit Sharma was honoured on May 16, as a stand at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium named after him. Rohit along with his family was invited by the Mumbai Cricket Association for a special ceremony for unveiling of the stand.
Rohit inaugurated the stand with his mother, father and wife by his side. The moment left every member of the Sharma clan teary-eyed.
“I had never dreamt of what was going to happen today. You try to achieve a lot of milestones, but something like this is really special, because Wankhede is an iconic stadium and so many memories have been made here, to have my name here with the greats of the game and the world’s best political leader, I cannot express the feeling. I am super grateful.” Rohit said.
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Rohit thus became fourth Indian cricketer to have a stand named after him at the Wankhede Stadium. The iconic cricket venue has previously named stands after Vijay Merchant, Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar also a statue of him placed within the stadium’s confines. The MCA also dedicated a stand each to former India captain Ajit Wadekar and former Maharashtra Chief Minister and ex-BCCI president Sharad Pawar.
“I am still playing and retired from two formats. It will be surreal to play when I play on 21st (for Mumbai Indians in IPL) and have a stand here, it will be special when I represent the country here,” Rohit added. The 38-year-old will only be playing ODIs for India in the future as he has retired from T20Is and Tests. Earlier this month Rohit bid adieu to Tests. He quit playing T20Is soon after leading India to win the ICC Men’s T20I World Cup in the Caribbean last year.
As an India player Rohit has played two Tests, five ODIs and four T20Is at the ground which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. Interestingly Rohit’s first Test at Wankhede was Tendulkar’s last international game. In that match Rohit hit an unbeaten century in the first innings as India beat the West Indies by an innings and 126 runs. Rohit’s last ODI appearance at the venue was the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. Under his captaincy India beat New Zealand by 70 runs and qualified for the final.
Prakhar Sachdeo
The Sportz Planet Desk
