Team India on Sunday (June 11) suffered a heavy 209-run defeat at the hands of Australia in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final at The Oval.
This result meant India's underwhelming record in ICC tournaments continued, with their last victory coming way back in 2013.
After the WTC final loss, India skipper Rohit Sharma admitted that his team needs to think and plan differently for the ODI World Cup at home in October-November.
"When the World Cup will be held in October, we will try to play in a different way. We will try to give people freedom and not think that we have to win this or that match.
"We have been thinking that this match is important, this event is important and things are not happening. So obviously, we will have to think differently and do things differently. Our message and focus will be on trying to do something different," said Rohit in the post-match press conference.
Playing the World Cup at home will also bring additional pressure and Rohit said the team will have to deal with it.
"We have told the boys to play freely. And if it seems so, then hit. It's a simple message. Whether it's Test cricket, T20 cricket or one day cricket, we don't want to play under pressure.
"If you look at the innings, the way Gill and I started in the second innings, our entire effort was to hit and play and put pressure on them. That's why we were 60 runs in 10 overs. But if you play with that mindset, chances are you'll get out,” the Indian captain stated.
"Then the comments and the people who talk about lapse of concentration. There is no lapse of concentration. It's just that we want to play in a different way. We want to do something different.
"Obviously, we have played so many ICC tournaments and have not won yet. So, our effort is to play in a different way and try to do something different," he explained.
In the WTC final, India were outplayed by Australia from the first day itself. The Rohit Sharma-led side opted to bowl first in overcast conditions but failed to make the most of it.
Australia rode on centuries from Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121) to pile up 469 in their first essay. In response, India’s innings folded for 296 as they conceded a healthy lead of 173 runs.
Australia declared their second innings at 270/8 to set a huge target of 444. However, Indian batting once again crumbled under pressure and got bowled out for 234 in the final innings.
According to Rohit, experienced batters not getting big runs cost India in the World Test Championship final.
"Now we have played two finals. You cannot really teach them how to bat in the little time that you have before the game. It's all about getting yourself ready and how you can do that, it is completely up to you.
"I don't want to be too critical about it - the reason I say that is because when we were here last time in (2021), a lot of the senior batters actually put their hand up and got us ahead in the series.
"Whether we played in Australia, we played in England, but yeah, like you said, this one-off game, if you're mentally not there, you can lose a game. You know, and that is exactly what happened. We honestly wanted to give our best shot.
"Everybody prepared really well in the little time that we had, that is all you can do. But yeah, when you have in your top six, you know, five or six batters who have quite experience played in these conditions before and couldn't go on to get big runs and that is what probably cost us the game. But I won't call it a lapse of concentration," said Rohit.
(With PTI Inputs)
