Bhubaneswar: Even as ‘unimpressive, overweight’ remarks on Rohit Sharma by Congress leader Shama Mohammad kicked off a storm, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar said that models should be picked in the team if fitness was the first criteria of selection.
“If you want only slim guys, then you should go to a modelling competition and pick all the models. It’s not about that. It’s about how well you can play cricket. My fitnesses test is a baller should able to bowl 20-25 overs in a day and the batter can bat for 4 sessions. Then it does not matter what is his waist size. We talked about Sarfaraz Khan-he was vilified for a long time because he was on the heavier side. But if he scores 150 for India in a Test match and follows it up with another two or three fifty-plus scores, then what’s the issue?” he asked.
Gavaskar further stated that the results speak for themselves. “He has won a World Cup. He has done what is expected of him in the cricketing field,” he told India Today.
He added that mental strength is the most important thing in cricket. “Bat well, bat for long, and score runs.”
Shama faced backlash for her post in which she said Rohit is “fat for a cricketer” even as India faced New Zealand on March 2 in the Champions Trophy 2025. She also said that he is “the most unimpressive captain India has ever had.”
Though initially the Congress leader defended her freedom of speech, she later deleted the post amid the outrage. “This is my personal remark, don’t bring my party into this. We can speak about someone’s fitness, what’s the issue in that? Since I am fit, I was only talking about his fitness… why are you making an issue out of it?” she asked.
