Former cricketer Aakash Chopra has weighed in on Congress leader Shama Mohamed’s remarks on India captain Rohit Sharma. Ahead of India’s Champions Trophy semi-final against Australia, Shama, in a post which has now been deleted by her, suggested that Rohit is “fat for a sportsperson”.  In a separate post on X, Shama had also called Rohit “the most unimpressive captain”. However, as India beat Australia in the semi-final on Tuesday, Shama backtracked from her comments on Rohit’s captaincy, and praised him for his leadership in the game.

Speaking on his Youtube channel, Chopra has shared his views on the controversy. He only questioned Shama about her comments on Rohit’s captaincy, and the criteria behind her decision to label Rohit as “the most unimpressive captain”.

“I read a statement from Shama Mohamed ji. She probably deleted that tweet as well. So I could only see a screenshot. I hope I saw the right one, where she was saying something about Rohit. Only one thing hurt me a lot and that was – ‘the most unimpressive captain for India’ or whatever,” said Chopra.

Citing the example of former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga, who led his side to its maiden Cricket World Cup title in 1996, Chopra suggested that a captain should be judged by his achievements. Chopra also praised Ranatunga for changing the face of Sri Lankan cricket.

“I said, really? How do you define whether someone is a good or an impressive captain or not, whether he is a game-changing captain and is inspiring a generation or not? Arjuna Ranatunga was the cult figure of Sri Lanka. He changed the face of Sri Lankan cricket. He lifted the trophy in 1996,” he added.

Chopra also pointed out how Rohit changed India’s white-ball approach after the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final loss to England.

“Now listen to this. We lost in the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-final under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. There we realized that we didn’t play well, that we said something before going and did something else. After that, he started playing a different brand of cricket. You will judge him by his impact,” Chopra highlighted.

Chopra also questioned how a captain who has led his side to three straight ICC finals can be deemed “unimpressive”.

“Since then until now, there have been three ICC events – an ODI World Cup, a T20 World Cup, and the Champions Trophy is in progress now. The guy has dropped only one game. Rohit Sharma has lost just one match as a captain. Is that unimpressive as a leader?” he further explained.