New Delhi, Mar 29 (PTI) Rohit Sharma says the Indian team has endured cricket’s vicissitudes in the last nine months but it waged a collective battle to achieve success and every member of the side that competed in the last three ICC tournaments deserves “respect”.
In their last three ICC limited-overs tournaments, India have lost only one out of 24 matches, with the defeat coming against Australia in the 2023 ODI World Cup final in Ahmedabad.
The India team recently won the ICC Champions Trophy and the T20 World Cup at home last year.
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In between a India lost rare home Test series against New Zealand and away in Australia.
Reflecting on his remarkable tenure as India captain, Rohit said: “Look at what this team has achieved in this big three tournaments. After playing the tournament like that and getting defeated only once and that too in a final (2023 ODI World Cup).”
“But imagine if we had won that as well to go undefeated in three ICC tournaments is crazy, never heard of but I will take this, 23 wins in 24 games is unheard of. It looks very nice from the outside but the team has gone through a lot of ups and downs.
“We had some really tough times as well but that is when you got to celebrate. If you do things like this you got to celebrate. I feel all the people who played these three tournaments, they deserve respect,” Rohit said in a video posted by Mumbai Indians on their ‘X’ page.
Interestingly, Rohit’s interview has come on the day when BCCI top brass was due to sit the future roadmap for the side but somehow the meeting has been postponed.
“It’s for any sportsman who are going through something and there is a low, they want to fight back, bounce back and try and make it whatever is front of you into a high.
“And thereafter we had a little bit of low where we lost a home series and we didn’t play well in Australia and then came the Champions Trophy. These nine months are perfect example of how life is, it is always going to be up and down.”
Rohit said the journey to glory and the change in mindset started in 2022 after India crashed out in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup in Australia.
“But thereafter we made a lot of things clear with the players that this is what we expect from you and this how we want you to play. So there was lot of clarity, a lot of conversations with the players to perform.
“There needs to be a freedom amongst the group so that they go out and play without any fear. There were few lows, a few series that we lost but we never panicked and we never went away from our thought process.
“When you are building a squad the first thing that you need to put in front of you is what does the team want? Where did we lack in the previous series, previous tournaments? Why did we not get the results?”
Reflecting on a forgettable 2024 IPL, where Mumbai Indians finished last, Rohit said every sportsman needs to have determination to bounce back. He said he was focussed to end his career in the shortest format which he did after the T20 World Cup triumph.
India defeated South Africa by 7 runs in Barbados to win the trophy.
“…that is where as a sportsman you need to show a little bit of grit, determination to comeback from the low. It (2024 IPL) was a low for the team and I think we didn’t play our best cricket also and there were so many things after IPL to look forward to.
“I knew there was a World Cup coming up and I had to shift my focus to the World Cup, knowing that this is going to be my last T20 World Cup. So I really wanted to make it count, and obviously I knew without the help of other players it is not going to be possible. So we just got around as a group and there was a lot of collective performance from everyone throughout the tournament,” Rohit said.
“My career for 17-18 years has always been up and down, which has taught me so many things in life, and these nine months were no different,” he said.
Talking about his journey with MI, the dashing opener said: “Obviously, since the time I started till now a lot of things have changed because I used to bat middle-order then, now I am opening the batting. I was captain then (MI), now I am not the captain. There were a few teammates with whom I won championships, they are not there, they are in the coaching role now.
“So, the roles have changed, a lot of things have changed but the mindset has not changed. What I want to do for this team has not changed, just to go out there and win games and trophies, that is what MI is known for all these years.”
