- Monday, April 29, 2024
The India captain was left in tears after his team lost the final of the 2023 World Cup against Australia at home after winning all the matches till then.
By: Shubham Ghosh
HE was left in deep agony after narrowly missing the 50-over World Cup crown at home last November when India lost the final against Australia by six wickets after winning all the matches till then. He is now fully focused on the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) as preparations for the T20 World Cup that follows in June.
But Rohit Sharma is not content yet with his achievements and recently, he hit speculations over his potential retirement out of the stadium as he often does with his bat by revealing that he is still hungry to win big events for the country.
Chatting with ‘Breakfast with Champions’, the ace opening batter, who will turn 37 this month, said he is still motivated to lift the World Cup for India, and potentially the International Cricket Council World Test Championship (WTC) final. India also lost the WTC final against Australia last year under Sharma’s captaincy.
Read: Ben Stokes bowls Rohit Sharma in his first Test delivery in 8 months but doesn’t celebrate; WATCH
India are well on the way to making their third consecutive WTC final this year after they thumped England 4-1 in a home Test series earlier this year.
“I haven’t really thought about retirement. But, I don’t know where life takes you. I am still playing well at this point in time – so I am thinking I am going to continue for a few more years and then, I don’t know. I really want to win the World Cup and there is a WTC final in 2025, hopefully India makes it,” he said in the show.
Read: Rohit Sharma screams at Shubman Gill after getting run out in Afghanistan T20; WATCH
The India captain, who was in tears after his country lost the final against the Australians in Ahmedabad on November 19, also touched upon the heart-breaking episode.
“50-over World Cup for me is the actual World Cup. We’ve grown up watching that World Cup. More importantly, it was happening in India in front of our home crowd. We played so well up until that final. When we won the semi-finals, I thought, now we’re just a step away. We’re doing all the things right,” the batter, who has never won a 50-over World Cup, said.
“What’s the one thing that can make us lose the World Cup? Not a single thing came to my mind. Because I thought we ticked all the boxes, we were playing good cricket. Confidence was there.”
“We were all supposed to have one bad day and that I guess that was our bad day. Don’t think we played bad cricket in that final, certain things didn’t go our way. But Australia were slightly better than us,” Sharma added.
The batter, who has led Mumbai Indians to five IPL crowns, is not the captain this year as all-rounder Hardik Pandya replaced him. He has been playing some good knocks and the fans would hope that he goes on to replicate his form that he showed in last year’s World Cup in this year’s T20 World Cup as well.
India will play the next 50-over World Cup in 2027 when Sharma will be 40.
