Team India captain Rohit Sharma urged the side to move on from the 2024 T20 World Cup win in the West Indies and the USA. While acknowledging the incredible moment, Rohit felt it was time to look forward to the next tournaments. However, Team India became the first-ever team to win a T20 World Cup by being unbeaten throughout the tournament.
Meanwhile, following the triumph, Rohit Sharma announced his T20I retirement along with Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja. However, India continued their winning run against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, winning by 4-1 and 3-0 in their next two T20I series respectively as well.
Speaking at the press conference on the eve of the Sri Lanka ODIs, Rohit Sharma said in pre-match press conference, “I feel like, I’ve been rested from the T20s like it used to happen in the past. And there will be big tournament coming up and we have to get ready for T20s again. I still feel it’s like that so I don’t think I’m completely out of the format.”
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“I had a good time off from cricket. It was a great feeling to come back home after winning the World Cup and what we experienced in Delhi and Mumbai. But yeah, now we have to move on, cricket moves on. Whatever we have done in the past, that was good for that particular period of time, but time keeps moving forward and we also need to keep moving forward,” again said Rohit Sharma.
However, Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians teammate Suryakumar Yadav is now India’s T20I captain after he retired from the format. And, Rohit will continue to lead India in the other two formats. He also felt winning or losing a game would be acceptable if Team India and its players maintained a high standard while experimenting as well. Despite the T20 World Cup win, India didn’t have tasted success in the ODI World Cups, with two semi-finals and a final defeat in the previous three editions as well.
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“At the end of the day, the standard of Indian cricket is more important and while we are doing that if you lose a game then it is absolutely fine. You are still trying to do something different and you are not compromising on the standard. We are a sports team, cricket team, and we should be allowed to lose while we are trying to do things differently. It ( the series) is not a practice ground. It is an international game. We want to play good cricket and achieve something out of this series. But, sometimes you have to understand that when you play for the nation, the quality of cricket should remain the way it is,” Rohit Sharma concluded.
