Team India registered a thrilling win over South Africa in the T20 World Cup final and clinched the title after a decade. With this, their ICC trophy drought also ended. Long after winning and celebrating, the Indian captain still couldn’t find the words to describe his feelings as well.
“I wanted this badly,” he said as quoted by Cricbuzz. “It’s very hard to put it in words because that moment… I don’t want to say what I was thinking and what was going [on] in my mind, but it was a very emotional moment personally for me. I wish I could capture that moment myself but not really, you can’t do that but I will always remember that. Yeah, those are the moments you wait for and then you don’t plan these things, it just happens because you’re so desperate for certain things in life and I was very desperate for this in my life. So happy that we eventually crossed the line this time.”
Rohit Sharma has experienced a lot in his 17-year career as an Indian cricketer. He won the T20 World Cup in its first edition in 2007 but missed out on a chance to be in the World Champion team four years after he was left out of the squad for the home World Cup in 2011 as well. He won a Champions Trophy two years later in 2013 but since then India failed to win any ICC tournament. However, under his leadership, India came close twice in 2023, losing to Australia each time in the finals of the World Test Championship and the home ODI World Cup last year.
“This has to be the greatest time, I can say that,” Rohit again said, trying to place the achievement in context. “It’s only because [of] how desperately I wanted to win this. So, all the runs… all the runs that I’ve scored in all these years, I think it does matter, but I’m not big on stats and all of that. I think winning games for India, winning trophies for India, that is what I look forward to all the time. And having this [the trophy] now right beside me probably has to be… I don’t know, honestly, I don’t know if it’s the greatest or what but it is definitely one of the greatest, I can say that.”
On the big day, Rohit Sharma had key decisions to take as at the toss he opted to bat first. While many have thought to consider chasing, Rohit said that he was steadfast in wanting to apply scoreboard pressure on the opposition as well.
“I’m a believer of just having runs on the board in big games,” he said. “That’s how my mind works. It is not necessary that everyone thinks like that in the team. But I have a decision to make and I made it very clear that no matter how the pitch is, whatever it is, we have to try and put runs on the board and then fight it out. You have the talent in your bowling and I have seen what the guys have done with the ball. So, I had that confidence that whatever score we have, we can try and defend it.”
“I know the result came in our favour, but even if the result didn’t come in our favour, I would have still completely backed the decision of batting first. Although I thought the pitch really played well… throughout the 40 overs the pitch was really good. It didn’t grip as such, which we really thought it would after the first half, with the sun beating down so hard, there is no grass on the pitch, it looks a lot drier. But obviously a lot of rolling and water must have gone in there to make it nice and hard. But, yeah, that was the thought and we were very clear with that decision as well, that we want to put runs on the board and try and defend it later,” he added.
“I don’t know how much I can talk about Bumrah,” Rohit Sharma concluded. “Obviously, we’ve been seeing this with him for such a long time now. Whenever he has ball in his hand, he tends to create magic for us every time. I am very lucky to have players like this in my squad. Players who are playing for me and Team India. Really, really grateful.”
