Do we like Rohit Sharma?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record on harm and a decent one on character, held back from higher because there is little on LGBTQ+ issues either way.
Rohit Sharma is one of India's best-known batters, and his arc has a nice circle in it. He started his T20 international career in India's 2007 World Cup win, then led the side to the 2024 T20 World Cup title, beating South Africa by seven runs in the final in Barbados.
He retired from T20Is straight after that final, saying there was “No better time to say goodbye to this format.” It was a tidy exit, and he stayed on in the other formats.
The next goodbye was messier. In May 2025 he retired from Tests with immediate effect, after a poor run of form and as reports swirled about his captaincy, and said it had been “an absolute honour to represent my country in whites.” He kept playing ODIs, and by late 2025 he was playing under a new captain.
The nastiest thing in his public file is something done to him. In March 2025 a Congress spokesperson posted that he was “fat for a sportsman”, and the BCCI secretary called the remark “very unfortunate”. The article reports no response from Rohit himself.
On the harm check, we found nothing: no campaigning against any group, no conspiracy-theory slide, no dodgy co-stars. His clearest public message on the wider world was a World Environment Day post in June 2025 about leaving a healthy planet for future generations. The gap is that we found nothing from him on LGBTQ+ issues either way, so it's a pass on what's there, not a glowing reference.
The good stuff is practical. In March 2020 he donated Rs 80 lakh to pandemic relief, including Rs 45 lakh to PM CARES, Rs 25 lakh to Maharashtra's relief fund, Rs 5 lakh to Zomato's Feeding India and Rs 5 lakh to stray dog welfare. His new family-format TV show has mainstream sponsors like Skoda, PhonePe and UltraTech Cement, nothing that sets off alarms.