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Ahead of the Test series against South Africa, India captain Rohit Sharma underlined that his team needed to win something, especially after last month's Cricket World Cup final loss to Australia.
The loss against the Pat Cummins-led side left Rohit Sharma in tears, which he acknowledged was still hurting him.
“I had no idea how to come back from this. The first few days I didn't know what to do. You know, my family, my friends, kept me going, kept things pretty light around me, which was quite helpful. It wasn't easy to digest, but life moves on. You have to move on in life. But, honestly, it was tough. It was not so easy to just move on,” Rohit Sharma said in his first comments since India's defeat in the ODI World Cup title clash.
“I have always grown up watching 50-over World Cup, and to me that was the ultimate prize. We have worked all these years for that World Cup… and it is disappointing, right? If you don't get through it, and you don't get what you want, what you've been looking for all this while, what you were dreaming of, you get disappointed, and you get frustrated as well at times,” he added.
“I thought we did everything we could from our side. If someone will ask me, what went wrong… because we won ten games, and in that ten games, yes, we made mistakes, but that mistake happens in every game that you play. You cannot have a perfect game. You can have a near-perfect game. But you cannot have a perfect game. If I look on the other side of it, I'm really proud of the team as well. Because how we played was simply outstanding. You don't get to perform like that every World Cup. And I am pretty sure I am, at least, how we played up until that final, it would have given people a lot of joy, a lot of pride watching the team play,” Rohit Sharma continued.
“After the final, it was very hard to get back and start moving on, which is why I decided that I need to go somewhere and just get my mind out of this. But then, wherever I was, I realised that people were coming up to me and they were appreciating everyone's effort, how well we played. I feel for all of them. They all, along with us, they were dreaming of lifting that World Cup, along with us,” the 36-year-old further stated.
“Everywhere we went during this entire World Cup campaign, there was so much support from everyone, who came to the stadium firstly, and people who were watching it from home as well. I want to appreciate what the people have done for us, in that one-and-a-half months. But again, if I think more and more about that I feel quite disappointed that we were not able to go through all the way,” Rohit Sharma opined.
“For me to see, you know, people coming up to me, telling me that they were proud of the team, you know made me feel really good to a certain extent. And along with them, I was healing as well. I felt, okay these are the kind of things you want to hear. When you meet people, when they understand what the player must be going through and when they know these kind of things… and not to bring out that frustration, that anger, it means a lot for us, for me definitely it meant a lot because there was no anger, it was just pure love from people that I met and it was wonderful to see that. So it gives you motivation to get back and start working again and look for another ultimate prize,” he expressed.
However, on Monday, in his press conference in South Africa, Rohit Sharma was asked if a first-ever Test series triumph in South Africa would heal the wounds of the World Cup loss. Rohit Sharma answered he didn't know if that would be the case.
“We have never won a Test series in South Africa and it'll be a big thing if we do it here. I do not know whether it'll be able to take away the pain of World Cup defeat. If we are able to achieve it then it'll be a good thing. Itna Mehnat Kiya hai to kuch to chahiye humko,” Rohit Sharma mentioned.
“We have been coming here for so many years. It will obviously be big if win a series. Now I don't know if a victory here – if we do get it – can be a balm on the World Cup loss. Honestly I don't know. A World Cup is a World Cup. It is very difficult to compare this series and the World Cup, but by itself, this is a very big series,” Rohit Sharma noted.
“There is so much history. If we can achieve this, it will feel good to everyone because… we have worked so hard, we need something to show for it. We are working so hard. We need something big. Everyone is desperate for it. Not just one or two seniors. Everybody wants to get big glory for the country and the team. We have all the tools, we just need to play carefree cricket. Our endeavour is to play freely and not think about the past or the future,” he suggested.
Meanwhile, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar pinpointed Rohit Sharma's biggest challenge in South Africa.
“First and foremost, the challenge would be to get your mental state into a Test match situation. He has been batting in the ODI format where he had decided that he was going to be playing the attacking role and try and score as many runs as possible in the first 10 overs of field restrictions,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
“He will have to change the approach completely for Test cricket because he will have to think in terms of batting the whole day. If he bats the whole day, then, clearly with the range of shots that he has got, he will be able to end up with 180 or 190 not out at the end of the day and India will be 300-plus,” he pointed out.
On the other hand, former cricketers Harbhajan Singh and Akash Chopra named India's playing XI for the first Test. For the uninitiated, Rohit Sharma will open the innings for the first time in a Test match in South Africa.
“According to me Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal will open. Shubman Gill would come in at number three and the fourth spot will be for Virat Kohli. The fifth and sixth spots belong to Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul respectively. For number seven Ravindra Jadeja but the biggest question comes at number 8 with Ashwin and Shardul available. I feel Ashwin should play at number 8 because you have Jasprit Bumrah for number 9, Siraj for 10 and Prasidh Krishna for 11,” Harbhajan Singh said on his YouTube channel.
“Rohit Sharma will be seen playing as an opener for the first time in South Africa. Yashasvi Jaiswal will be there along with him. His career has started very well but it needs to be seen how he plays going forward – there is a massive difference between the conditions in West Indies and South Africa,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
The two-match Test series between India and South Africa will begin at the SuperSport Park in Centurion on Tuesday, with the visitors looking to conquer the “final frontier” in their journey in the whites.
