'I think his approach puts fear...' - Mitchell Santner heaps praises on Rohit Sharma after latter's captaincy knock in CT2025 final

New Zealand skipper and star spinner Mitchell Santner heaped praises on his Indian counterpart Rohit Sharma for his decisive and match-winning knock for India in the Champions Trophy 2025 final. Notably, skipper Sharma scored a crucial 76 runs off 83 balls, with seven fours and three sixes. He also won the Player of the Match award for his sensational knock that played a game-changing role in India’s historic Champions Trophy 2025 win.

Mitchell Santner lauded the approach Rohit Sharma played with in the tournament’s summit clash. Besides that, Rohit’s Kiwi counterpart was all praises for him during the post-match press conference.

“He'd like to score the most runs in the final” - Mitchell Santner about Rohit Sharma

The Kiwi skipper spoke about the impact of Rohit’s knock on the result of the final between India and New Zealand, alongside making the New Zealand bowlers look helpless in the initial half of the game.

“I guess if you would ask Rohit before the tournament which game he'd like to score the most runs, it'd probably be the final. But I think his approach, he puts fear in bowlers. They're kind of aggressive. I think he and Shubman dovetail well. Shubman will wait for a bad ball, but Rohit is pretty happy to hit bowlers off their lengths,” said Mitchell Santner during the post-match press conference.

“And I guess the way he goes about it, you might fail a few times, but, like he did today, if you can really get your team off to a flyer, especially on a slow wicket, you put yourself kind of ahead of the game. And like their power play with the bat was good, and then, you know, I guess we're kind of on the back foot from there with him being probably 100 for none,” he added later.

Apart from his brilliant batting in the Champions Trophy 2025 final, Rohit has also become the first skipper in the history of cricket to lead his side into the finals of four major ICC tournaments, including the WTC 2023, ODI World Cup 2023, T20 World Cup 2024 and Champions Trophy 2025 and won last two out of these four finals.