Skipper Rohit stays cool as India close in on perfect World Cup triumph

The Cricket World Cup final between India and Australia takes place on Sunday at Ahmedabad's 132,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium – and it's going to be a hot one.

Conditions in India can frazzle a person's mind. About 20 years ago, while lounging on the banks of the Ganges in a vest, I was mistaken for a lady by a heavily perspiring middle-aged Englishman.

A similar error of judgement was made by Jos Buttler, who chose to bowl first against South Africa in Mumbai despite the fact that, as England's managing director Rob Key remarked later, it was "hotter than the sun out there".

We've seen batsmen cramping up, catches going down, and even a rare rash shot from Steve Smith, Australia's ultra-efficient runscoring machine, in Thursday's tense semi-final win over the Proteas.

One day earlier, Virat Kohli stoked Indian supporters into paroxysms of delight with a record 50th ODI century in their semi against New Zealand.

During the Kiwis' run-chase, though, fours and sixes were greeted with impeccably observed silence from the home fans, whose tension clearly affected India's bowlers and fielders.

Fortunately for the World Cup favourites, captain Rohit Sharma has maintained his cool in a land where so many others – Buttler, Smith, that sweaty chap who misgendered me in Varanasi – have seen their cognitive abilities wilt in the subcontinental sun.

India have won all ten of their matches and if, as the betting suggests, they complete a perfect tournament on Sunday it will be a personal triumph for Rohit.

Whereas Kohli's rise to batting superstardom and the India captaincy felt almost preordained, Rohit endured several underwhelming years in the middle-order before finally fulfilling his potential as a brilliant Test, ODI and T20 opener.

He has demonstrated his unflappable captaincy in the Indian Premier League, leading Mumbai Indians to five titles, and has coped well with the unimaginable pressures of skippering India in a home World Cup.

Rohit's personal campaign began with a six-ball duck against Sunday's opponents Australia. Since then, though, he has provided fireworks with the bat and smart leadership in the field.

As an opening batsman, he takes the attack to the opposition in the first ten overs. It's a selfless approach, not without its risks, which has unsettled bowlers and eased the pressure on India's classy middle-order batsmen.

It worked perfectly in the semi-final against New Zealand when Rohit's 47 off 29 balls laid the foundation for Kohli and Shreyas Iyer's centuries in a matchwinning total of 397-4.

In nine innings following his blob against Australia, Rohit's strike-rate (runs scored per 100 balls faced) was 156, 136, 129, 115, 86, 200, 167, 113 and 162.

His slowest innings was a crucial 87 out of 229-9 in India's low-scoring win over England – another example of his ability to switch from fire to ice when the situation requires.

Of course, Rohit's job is made significantly easier by the devastating performances of India's bowlers and batsmen. But a calm, sharp, in-form captain is a huge boost to any cricket team and Rohit has led his side superbly.

Even when India were on the brink of a ninth league victory against the Netherlands, he was thinking ahead. He used the final stages of the Dutch innings to experiment with defensive, run-saving tactics and test out India's part-time bowlers in case they were needed in the knockout games.

And at a tense stage of Wednesday's semi, when New Zealand had reached 213-2 in pursuit of 398, Rohit's words of wisdom at the drinks break settled any nerves in the India huddle.

Ten balls later, the Kiwis were 220-4 after an uncharacteristic rush of blood from Kane Williamson and a duck for Tom Latham, and 1.4 billion Indian cricket fans had rediscovered their voices.

Napoleon famously preferred lucky generals to good ones. In Rohit, India appear to have both.

Sign up to emails from Racing Post Sport and get all the latest news and tips

Today's top sports betting stories

Follow us on Twitter @racingpostsport