The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 is slated to be held in India from October 5 to November 19.
With less than two months remaining for the World Cup, India skipper Rohit Sharma said he is banking on the “massive” home support to lift the coveted trophy.
India’s last ODI World Cup triumph came in 2011 when MS Dhoni and his men clinched the title playing on home soil.
“I’ve never seen it so close. Even when we won in 2011, I was not part of the squad. But yeah, it looks beautiful, so many memories behind the trophy as well, the past, the history.
“Yeah, so, it looks beautiful and hopefully we can lift it, fingers crossed,” Rohit was quoted as saying by the ICC.
India will begin their 2023 World Cup campaign against five-time champions Australia at Chepauk on October 8.
“I know for a fact that every ground, every venue that we will be travelling to will get massive support. You know, it’s the World Cup, so everyone is looking forward to this and the World Cup coming back to India after 12 years…
“…you know 2011 was the last time we played a 50-over World Cup. We played a 20-over World Cup in 2016 but a 50-over World Cup after 12 years in the country, people are quite excited and we can see the buzz already back home. I’ll be looking forward to playing in all venues.”
Recalling his memories of the World Cup, Rohit said: “In 2003, India played really well up until the finals. You know, Sachin Tendulkar was amazing with the bat, scored so many runs.
“And then comes the 2007 World Cup where we didn’t have a great time, didn’t even qualify after the league stage, so that was quite unfortunate.
“2011 was a memorable one for all of us, I remember watching it from home, every single match, every single ball which was being bowled and that was being played.
“There were two kinds of emotions, one was obviously I was not a part of it, so I was a little disappointed. I decided I was not going to watch the World Cup, but again, the second memory I remember was that India was playing so well, quarter-finals onwards.”
Rohit Sharma featured in the 2015 and 2019 editions of the World Cup. He finished the 2019 edition as the highest run-getter with 648 runs from 9 innings, including five hundreds and one half-century.
“And 2015 and 2019, I was a part of it, which felt really good to play the World Cup. We went to the semi-finals, tried everything we could to go to the finals and play well in the finals, but again, a very unfortunate incident where we couldn’t go through to the finals,” he said.
“But hopefully, you know, we are back home again, so hopefully we can turn things around and it’s still a long way to go. And you know you can’t win the World Cup in one or two days. You got to play well for an entire month, month and a half, and be consistent,” he further stated.
Rohit feels it is important to start fresh in every game to win marquee tournaments like the World Cup.
“I know every day is a fresh day. Every day is a fresh start, it’s not like Test match cricket where you have the momentum with you and you carry the momentum to the next day.
“One-day cricket, limited overs format is like that, that’s where the challenge comes. You’ve to start fresh every day and you know that’s where I was (in 2019),” he said.
(With PTI Inputs)