After Bharat lost to Australia in the 2023 World Cup final on November 19, Rohit Sharma finally opened up about the heartbreaking defeat in Ahmedabad. He seemed on the verge of tears as he spoke during the post-match presentation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi even consoled him after the loss. However, after these moments, Rohit stayed out of the spotlight and didn’t make many public appearances.
After being included in Bharat’s Test squad for the series in South Africa, Rohit Sharma stayed quiet for a while. Recently, he shared a sincere video expressing the emotions he and his teammates felt after the World Cup loss. Nearly a month has passed since the heartbreak, and Rohit, in the video, thanked the public for their constant support, indicating that with time, he has started to heal from the disappointment.
“I had no idea how to come back from this. The first few days, I didn’t know what to do. After the final, it was very hard to get back and start moving on, which is why I decided that I need to get my mind out of this. But then, wherever I was, I realized 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, were dreaming of lifting that World Cup, along with us,” Rohit said in a video posted on Team Ro’s Instagram handle.
“Everywhere we went during this entire 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 half month period. But again, if I think more and more about that I feel quite disappointed that we were not able to go all the way”, he added.
The loss in the World Cup was tough for everyone, including the players and the 1.5 billion people in Bharat. Despite that, Rohit finds comfort in the fact that until the final, Team Bharat was the most dominant team in the tournament. They were unbeaten for 10 matches, with Virat Kohli scoring the most runs and Mohammed Shami taking the most wickets. Rohit himself performed exceptionally well, scoring over 500 runs in the series and making significant contributions in almost every match, except for two.
“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,” captain said.
“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.”
In the World Cup 2023, Bharat had a strong journey, playing great cricket. They continued their winning streak against rivals Pakistan and defeated New Zealand twice, a team that had been a challenge for them before. Even though they didn’t win the final, the support from the public helped Rohit cope with the disappointment. Now, he’s gearing up for the next challenges—a tough three-Test series against South Africa starting on December 26, followed by a five-match series against England in the Pataudi Trophy next month.
“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 good. Along with them, I was healing as well. I felt, okay these are the kind of things you want to hear,” added Rohit.
“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.”
People are talking about Rohit possibly returning as captain for the T20 World Cup in 2024, but whether or not that happens, he won’t have the chance to win a 50-over World Cup in his career. By the next edition, he’ll be close to 40, and the chances of him playing until then are slim. Not winning the World Cup is a big letdown for one of India’s best white-ball batters, and Rohit openly admits that it’s a disappointment he’ll have to live with.
“I’ve always grown up watching the 50-over World Cup. To me that was the ultimate prize, the 50-over World Cup. We’ve worked all these years, for that World Cup. And it is disappointing, right? If you don’t get through it, don’t get what you want, what you’ve been looking for all this while, what you were dreaming of. You get disappointed. You get frustrated as well at times,” he said.
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