The Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has addressed on the defeat in the World Cup finals against Australia for the first time.
Rohit Sharma on India’s World Cup loss
After India ran a successful campaign in the World Cup 2023, they suffered a defeat at the hands of Australia in the World Cup finals on November 19. After the defeat, Rohit Sharma was seen with teary eyes and was consoled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He was included in India’s Test squad for the South Africa tour. He was in the dark for a long time until now. The skipper revealed the emotions that he and his teammates experienced in terms of the result.
He spoke out his emotions after a long time saying, “I had no idea how to come back from this. The first few days, I didn’t know what to do. After the final, it was very hard to get back and start moving on, which is why I decided that I needed to get my mind out of this.”
“But then, wherever I was, I realized that people were coming up to me and they were appreciating everyone’s effort, how well we played. I feel for all of them. They all, along with us, were dreaming of lifting that World Cup, along with us,” Rohit said in a video posted on Team Ro’s Instagram handle.
“Everywhere we went during this entire campaign, there was so much support from everyone who came to the stadium first and people who were watching it from home as well. I want to appreciate what the people have done for us, in that one and half month period. But again, if I think more and more about that I feel quite disappointed that we were not able to go all the way.”
While the outcome was overwhelming, the Indian skipper Rohit has been dominating other teams until finals. The Indian star Virat Kohli emerged as the leading run-scorer and Mohammed Shami became the highest wicket-taker. Rohit Sharma also scored 500 runs in the tournament.
“I thought we did everything we could from our side. If someone will ask me, what went wrong… because we won ten games, and in that ten games, yes, we made mistakes, but that mistake happens in every game that you play. You cannot have a perfect game. You can have a near-perfect game. But you cannot have a perfect game,” Rohit said.
“If I look on the other side of it, I’m really proud of the team as well. Because how we played was simply outstanding. You don’t get to perform like that every World Cup. And I am pretty sure I am, at least, how we played up until that final, it would have given people a lot of joy, a lot of pride watching the team play.”
The support from fans has helped the Indian skipper to get out from his scars and is ready for his next assignment on the South Africa tour and a five-match test series against England in the Pataudi Trophy.
“For me to see, you know, people coming up to me, telling me that they were proud of the team, you know made me feel good. Along with them, I was healing as well. I felt, okay these are the kind of things you want to hear,” added Rohit.
“People, when they understand what the player must be going through and when they know this kind of things and not to bring out that frustration, that anger, it means a lot for us, for me definitely it meant a lot because there was no anger, it was just pure love from people that I met and it was wonderful to see that. So it gives you motivation to get back and start working again and look for another ultimate prize.”
There is an expectation for the skipper to return for the upcoming T20 World Cup, but he will be finishing his career before the World Cup in 2027. He opens on his disappointment in losing the World Cup trophy.
“I’ve always grown up watching the 50-over World Cup. To me, that was the ultimate prize, the 50-over World Cup. We’ve worked all these years, for that World Cup. And it is disappointing, right? If you don’t get through it, don’t get what you want, what you’ve been looking for all this while, what you were dreaming of. You get disappointed. You get frustrated as well at times,” he said.
Currently, India is playing a T20I series against South Africa where South Africa won the second T20I match by five wickets. They will be facing off each other in the 3rd T20I match on December 14 at Wanderers Stadium.
