"You will score many hundreds but winning that championship always stays with you” - Rohit Sharma on aiming for World Cup glory
Team India’s limited-overs captain Rohit Sharma has admitted that winning the World Cup trophy is his ultimate goal both as a player and skipper. Rohit stated that while scoring hundreds makes one feel good, nothing can match the feeling of a World Cup triumph.
On Wednesday, Rohit was named as India’s new ODI captain. He had already taken over the role from Virat Kohli in the T20Is, following the conclusion of the T20 World Cup 2021. Rohit is likely to be at the helm when India play the T20 World Cup in Australia next year as well as the 50-over World Cup at home in 2023.
In a candid chat on the show "Backstage with Boria", Rohit stressed that with cricket being a team sport, winning major championships remains the ultimate goal for any player. The 34-year-old explained:
“When you play the sport, you want to achieve the best. The best is to win the championship. You will score many hundreds but winning that championship always stays with you because that is a collective effort from the team. At the end of the day, we play a team sport. What you achieve as a team is very important to me.”
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India haven’t won an ICC title since the Champions Trophy under MS Dhoni in 2013. They had a disastrous outing in the T20 World Cup 2021, failing to get past the Super 12 round.
“What we do prior to the World Cup is very important” - Rohit Sharma
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While reiterating that the eventual goal of the team is to lift the World Cup trophy, Rohit agreed that the preparations leading into the big events are equally important. He elaborated:
“Obviously, we have got a few World Cups coming up. We will keep an eye on that. But there are a lot of things that we need to do as a team to get that championship. We have the team, the players and the support now to go and get it. What we do prior to the World Cup is very important. When you hunt for that championship, there is so much pressure in terms of players’ performances and people’s expectations.”
Rohit added that he will try and take away some pressure from the players so that they can focus on the goal at hand. The seasoned opener said:
“One thing that I would love to do is just take that pressure away from the boys at least. We can do that by doing the little things right. Making sure that we give them that security and freedom to go and express. That is the way to start and then we will see how things pan out in the next two or three months.”
Rohit led India to a 3-0 victory over New Zealand in his first assignment as full-time T20I skipper. He will next captain India during the three-match ODI series in South Africa in January.