“Pehle kuch ban jau, fir main karunga” - S Sreesanth shares heartwarming tale of why a young Rohit Sharma refused to party too much

Former India pacer S Sreesanth has stated that current captain Rohit Sharma was a very focused individual from his younger days in international cricket itself. Giving an example of the same, he said that Rohit did not party a lot with teammates because he was determined to make a name for himself in the sport.

Rohit, 36, is one of the biggest names in international cricket today. The elegant batter made his international debut in 2007 and has gone on to feature in 52 Tests, 252 ODIs, and 148 T20Is, scoring 17642 runs across formats.

In an interview with Sportskeeda, Sreesanth shared an interesting tale about why Rohit often refused to party as a youngster.

“I would like to share one thing - very few people would know about it. We were playing the CB series [2007-08]. Rohit Sharma was there and he had performed very well. We used to go out for dinner or parties in the night. Rohit rarely joined us. He used to say, ‘Sree nahi, aap log niklo’ [Sree, you guys leave]. I used to ask why and he used to be like, ‘Nahi, nahi, pehle kuch ban jau, fir main karunga’ [Let me become something first, then I will do it [party]," the former pacer said.

“That mindset of his was that, ‘I am not thinking about just today’. That was very good to see in a youngster. I wouldn’t say that I knew back then that he would become a superstar. But, I knew he would do extremely well for himself, keep improving,” the 40-year-old added.

Rohit scored 235 runs in 10 innings during the 2007-08 CB series in Australia, averaging 33.57, with two half-centuries.

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“I recently met Rohit Sharma after 10 years during this IPL” - Sreesanth

During the interaction with Sportskeeda, Sreesanth also revealed that he recently met the Indian captain after 10 years during the Indian Premier League (IPL). Terming the reunion as an emotional one, the former Kerala speedster described Rohit as his younger brother.

“I recently met Rohit Sharma after 10 years during this IPL. When he came to my room, for 30 seconds, we were just looking at each other. At the end of the day, Rohit, me, Raina, Robin Uthappa, Dhoni bhai, we were all very close. We used to hang out together. Suddenly, when he walked in, it was like a movie. We discussed normally about family for 15 minutes and then he left for a team meeting," he explained.

“For me, Rohit is more like younger brother and I will always respect that. I wish him all the very best. I want him to win the World Cup and he will win the World Cup,” Sreesanth added.

Rohit was dismissed for a duck in the World Cup match against Australia, but India ended up winning the game by six wickets.