Ahead of India’s Cricket World Cup campaign opener against Australia, skipper Rohit Sharma admitted that a lot of players in the team have “unfinished business” when it comes to this tournament, but to win the title, the team needs to find a balance between being desperate and hungry. India will kickstart its ICC World Cup campaign against Australia on Sunday at Chennai.
On whether some players of the team, including him have some unfinished business when it comes to the tournament, Rohit said, “Yeah, I mean look, you heard the great man say that so many times that you know, until he wins the World Cup, he has got a bit of unfinished business. I am sure you know who I’m talking about. “So, it is the same for us as well. You know, you want to win the World Cup, It is the biggest prize that you can have in your career. But again, there is a way to do it. There’s a procedure that you need to follow. There’s a process to it.”
“In desperation, you can do so many things that can lead into so many other things as well. So, it is good to be desperate. It is good to be hungry. But you have got to find that balance, right? Balance to stay desperate and stay hungry for, scoring runs, lifting the trophy, winning games, whatever that is. But there is a balance that you need to find. You cannot get way too ahead of yourself because that can lead into something that you do not really wish for.”
“You have got to find nice balance and luckily, I mean, for us, the seniors, they play a lot of cricket, so they know how to stay under that, you know, under that radar and keep doing things that they are supposed to do.”
“And then obviously we have to leave a lot of things to Almighty as well because we need that luck, a little bit of luck in the tournament. I hope we get that luck. But yeah, it will be nice to win a World Cup,” concluded the skipper.
Rohit congratulated the men’s and women’s cricket teams for capturing the gold medals at the ongoing Asian Games in Hangzhou, where Cricket made the debut. “I felt very nice, I just saw it being declared when I came in from the dressing room. I have never won a gold medal. But our team, the other team, has done it. So, I want to congratulate them. This is a big moment for our country. Winning a gold medal is a dream. We always used to watch on TV, gold medal. Today our cricketers, even women’s team has won gold medal. So, salute,” he said.
In the women’s tournament, Women in Blue defended a modest 117 in the final against Sri Lanka with Smriti Mandhana (46), Jemimah Rodrigues (42) and Titas Sadhu (3/6) being the stars. In the men’s tournament final, the match was called off due to rain with Afghanistan at 112/5 and India got the gold due to higher seeding. On having the best playing eleven for every match, the skipper said that the team does want to play its best eleven players but it is also dependent on conditions.
“We definitely want to be a team where we want to play the best 11, but you can pick your best 11 based on the conditions that you have in front of you. Where there is a bit of assistance to the slower bowlers, you need to bring in that slower bowlers. So, your core of the team will remain the same. Your eight, nine, ten players will remain the same. There will be one or two changes here and there, which you have got to be ready to accept and take it into your stride and move forward. And that is the communication that we’ve had with the players at the beginning, and everyone’s ready to do it. You know, it is the World Cup,” he said.
“So, no one should have personal preferences. It is the team that matters and the team’s goal that matters. So, I think without me talking in the team changing room too much about it, they should realize that, OK, this is a bigger deal. So, we have to focus on whatever the team wants and do it for the team,” he concluded.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc.
Editors pick
