“I decided I was not going to watch it”- Rohit Sharma on heartbreaking snub from 2011 World Cup squad

Rohit Sharma played in 2015 and 2019 World Cups and will lead India in 2023 World Cup.

India captain Rohit Sharma will lead the Men in the Blue side in the upcoming 2023 World Cup at home, which will also be his first time captaining the side in the 50-over ICC event. Despite making his India debut in 2007, Rohit only managed to play his first ODI World Cup in 2015.

When the squad for the 2011 World Cup was announced, Rohit Sharma’s name was missing from the list as India trusted Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, and Yusuf Pathan to bolster the middle and lower-order.

As the cricket world inches closer to the 2023 edition of the ODI World Cup, Rohit recalled the memories of the past events, especially the 2011 edition when he wasn't a part of the Indian team.

He revealed that he had decided that he would not watch the entire World Cup after he was snubbed from the squad for the 2011 event.

"2011 (World Cup) 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 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, from the quarter-finals onwards.

You know, the big quarter-final was against Australia. I know how the pressure is on all these players when playing these games. I can only imagine the pressure that each player must have gone through at that time, and then the semi-finals against Australia. It was a brilliant finish by Yuvi and Raina at the end," he said to ICC.

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Rohit also spoke about the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. Though he was a part of both events, India couldn't go the distance in them.

“And in 2015 and 2019, I was a part of it, which felt good to play the World Cup. We went to the semi-finals, and 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. 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, a month and a half, and be consistent. So you know, we are trying everything we can, from our perspective to make sure we are ready for the World Cup," he asserted.

(ICC inputs)