THE LAST time India received an ICC match was in 2013, when M S Dhoni lifted the Champions Trophy. A decade later, captain Rohit Sharma says he wouldn’t enable the decade-long futile Cup chase to drag down his workforce throughout the 50-over cricket carnival that begins on Thursday, when defending champions England tackle New Zealand in Ahmedabad.
“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,” Sharma advised The Indian Express.
So who will win the Cup? “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,” he mentioned.
Sharma additionally burdened he could be glad if the expectations from the followers aren’t too excessive. “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,” he mentioned with a smile.
India’s document within the ICC occasions has been some extent of rivalry. They have usually performed properly to achieve the enterprise finish of the tournaments however have been unable to win the knockout is ok… It occurs’ video games that matter.
In 2015, India reached the semifinal solely to lose to Australia. Next time, in 2019, they misplaced within the semifinals once more – to New Zealand. In the 2 latest T20 World Cups, in UAE in 2021, and in Australia in 2022, the workforce didn’t make it to the ultimate.
Last yr in Australia, Sharma had taken over the captaincy from Virat Kohli however the jinx had continued. Now he has an opportunity to depart a legacy, however he mentioned he doesn’t wish to suppose in these phrases.
“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,” Sharma mentioned.
At 36, this might be his final World Cup as a pacesetter and possibly as a participant. Does he really feel that the captaincy got here to him on the proper time or was it delayed? “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),” he mentioned.
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“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.”
Sharma additionally laid out the challenges forward of enjoying an almost two-month-long match that additionally was the rationale for a lot headache behind the workforce choice. “A team needs to play 11 games to reach the World Cup final. Last time we played this format was in 2019, but to play 11 ODIs in one-and-half months is not easy. It’s a long World Cup. We don’t want any of our pacers to break down. Hence we have selected more of them.”
On the comparability with the Class of 2011, Sharma mentioned the Dhoni-led World Cup profitable workforce had extra skilled gamers. “In the 2011 team, everybody was a big name. Did any position change? No. You suddenly didn’t have to bring Harbhajan Singh at number 4-5 because all the guys are match winners in the positions that they play. Now we have a lot of newer faces. We had an injury problem, two players (Rahul and Shreyas) are making a comeback after two months. So, things looked different and selection calls had to be made.”