Rohit Sharma recalled some of India’s bitter-sweet World Cup campaigns. Rohit, who was not selected for the 2011 World Cup, will now captain the Men in Blue in the much-anticipated competition, which will be held in India from October 5 to November 19.
Rohit stated that India delivered several outstanding performances during the 2003 World Cup.
The 36-year-old was effusive in his admiration for renowned batter Sachin Tendulkar, describing him as ‘great’ during that campaign. In addition, he noted that India had a poor performance at the next event, which was held in the West Indies in 2007.
Team India was eliminated from the mega tournament after a surprise loss to Bangladesh, leaving fans and players devastated.
“In 2003, India played really well up until the finals. You know, Sachin Tendulkar was amazing with the bat, scored so many runs. And then comes the 2007 World Cup where we didn’t have a great time, didn’t even qualify after the league stage, so that was quite unfortunate,”
Rohit told ICC.
Rohit Sharma on watching World Cup 2011
He also discussed India’s World Cup performance in 2011, saying that it was really frustrating after not getting selected for the squad. He recalled that he had initially resolved not to watch it, but that he had watched every match at home. Notably, under MS Dhoni’s leadership, India won their first World Cup trophy in 22 years with a resounding victory over Sri Lanka in the final.
“2011 was a memorable one for all of us, I remember watching it from home, every single match, every single ball which was being bowled and that was being played. There were two kinds of emotions, one was obviously I was not a part of it, so I was a little disappointed. I decided I was not going to watch the World Cup, but again, the second memory I remember was that India was playing so well, quarter-finals onwards,”
he added.
Rohit Sharma went on to remark that he was thrilled to be selected to represent India in the World Cups in 2015 and 2019. Notably, the 36-year-old was the race’s leading scorer in 2019. He broke numerous batting records, scoring 648 runs in nine matches at an average of 81.00.
“And 2015 and 2019, I was a part of it, which felt really good to play the World Cup. We went to the semi-finals, tried everything we could to go to the finals and play well in the finals, but again, a very unfortunate incident where we couldn’t go through to the finals. But hopefully, you know, we are back home again, so hopefully we can turn things around and it’s still a long way to go. And you know you can’t win the World Cup in one or two days. You got to play well for an entire month, month and a half, and be consistent,”
the India skipper concluded.
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