"We've seen it when we played that ODI World Cup" - Rohit Sharma opens up on India's mindset for 2025 Champions Trophy
Team India captain Rohit Sharma believes that one batter out of the top four needs to score big in every match for the Men in Blue to have a successful 2025 Champions Trophy campaign. Referring to India's impressive performance in the 2023 ODI World Cup, he pointed out that not many of their batters scored hundreds, but as a team, they were consistently posting big totals.
India will begin their 2025 Champions Trophy campaign with a Group A match against Bangladesh in Dubai on Thursday, February 20. The Men in Blue recently thumped England 3-0 in a home series. Shubman Gill was the Player of the Series for notching up 259 runs in three innings at a strike rate of over 100. Rohit, Virat Kohli, and Shreyas Iyer were also among the runs.
Significantly, India had the same top four in the 2023 ODI World Cup in which they finished runners-up. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the Bangladesh clash, Rohit stated that the Men in Blue would look to adopt a similar batting approach to what they had in the World Cup at home. He said (via Cricbuzz):
"Your top-three, four, five batters need to get that big score for you to post a big score eventually. So, I think our top-four batters are quite experienced. And we know that once they are set, they like to get those big runs. We've seen it as well when we played that ODI World Cup (in 2023), there were only a few hundreds that we scored, but we went on to score quite a few times, 350-plus scores, or 330 scores like that."
"That will be our focus. We will not be looking at the individual milestones and stuff like that. Whoever the two batters are in there; they have to do the job. And the guy who goes in after that has a job to do as well. So, if seven, eight of us think like that, we will end up getting the score that we are looking for. It's just about everyone contributing to the cause," the 37-year-old added.
Kohli (765) was the leading run-getter in the 2023 World Cup, followed by Rohit (597). Shreyas also had a memorable tournament, scoring 530 runs in 11 innings, with the aid of two hundreds. As for Gill, he scored 354 runs in nine innings at an average of 44.25 and a strike rate of 106.94, with the help of four half-centuries.
"We wanted him to get back to playing for India" - Rohit Sharma on Mohammed Shami's comeback
The white-ball series against England marked Mohammed Shami's much-awaited comeback to international cricket. The pacer had been out of action due to a heel injury following the conclusion of the 2023 World Cup.
While the seasoned pacer looked rusty on his comeback, Rohit expressed pleasure at the fast bowler's return to international cricket. He commented:
"All we wanted with Shami was to get him back to wearing that India colors more than anything else. Whether he gets wickets or not that was completely immaterial for us at that point. We wanted him to get back to playing for India. And he's done that."
"When you talk about a bowler like Shami who's done the job over the years so many times for us, it's just about getting back to their rhythm and hopefully he can find some rhythm early on in this tournament and help the team," the Indian captain added.
Shami was the leading wicket-taker in the 2023 ODI World Cup. In seven matches, he picked up 24 wickets at an average of 10.71, with three five-fers and one four-fer to his credit.