Rohit Sharma is set to lead India in the ODI World Cup for the very first time.
With the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 set to get underway in India on October 5, many experts have tipped the Rohit Sharma-led side to end the global trophy drought in home conditions.
The pressure of expectations is huge, but skipper Rohit isn’t thinking on the line of breaking the ICC trophy jinx.
“Yes, we have not won; it’s fine! I’m not a person who overthinks and puts myself in a tough place where I’m not able to make a decision. England started winning now; in 2019 they won the World Cup after so many years. It happens. Australia is the only consistent team who have won. After 2007, they won the ODI World Cup in 2015. They won the T20 World Cup in Dubai,” Rohit told The Indian Express.
When asked who will clinch the coveted trophy, the Indian captain replied: “I don’t have an answer for it. How can I say that now? All I can hope is that the team is in a good space. Everybody is fit and fine. That’s all I can hope for. I cannot say beyond this. Space is such an important factor and it’s a very key thing now.”
Talking about the expectations from the fans, Rohit said: “What people are expecting we can’t control. In India wherever we go, be it airports or hotels, they say, ‘World Cup jeetna hai sir’ (You have to win the World Cup). It happens everywhere. It will never stop.”
While Virat Kohli took the India team to great heights as a captain, he failed to clinch an ICC trophy. The same has been the case with Rohit Sharma, under whom the team lost the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final to England and the WTC final against Australia earlier this year.
“Every year there is an ICC trophy now; if you don’t win it’s an unsuccessful year! People just forget what good work has happened in these 10 months. Rightly, as the Indian cricket team, we are expected to win major trophies. We are one of the top teams in the world. We have to be good at it. It has been disappointing for sure,” Rohit said.
This could well be Sharma’s last World Cup as a captain and probably as a player. He was handed India’s all-format captaincy last year after Virat Kohli stepped down as T20I and Test captain and was sacked as ODI skipper.
Asked if the captaincy came to him a bit late, the 36-year-old said, “Obviously, you want to be at your peak for this, say when you are 26-27. But you cannot always get what you want. You are talking about the Indian captaincy and there have been stalwarts in the Indian team. Many more players deserved to be the captain of the team. I had to wait for my turn and that’s absolutely fair enough. The guys before, Virat was before me, so was MS (Dhoni).”
“Just look at the names that are missed out: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag … these are all stalwarts of Indian cricket. Not to forget Yuvraj Singh. He never captained India. Yuvraj has been such a match winner for India, he should have been the captain at some stage but he didn’t get it. That’s life. I got it now and I am grateful for it. I would rather have it when I know how to captain a team, when I know what is required and all. Rather than when I don’t know the ABCD of captaincy. So in that respect, this is good.”
India will open their World Cup campaign against five-time champions Australia in Chennai on October 8.