Rohit Sharma on 2019 World Cup performance: The Indian vice-captain laid emphasis on individual knocks winning matches for India.
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India limited-over vice-captain Rohit Sharma received plentiful heartening wishes across social media platforms upon turning 33 yesterday.
Sharma, who would have been captaining Mumbai Indians in the 13th season of the Indian Premier League had the novel COVID-19 pandemic not played spoilsport, has been thanking all the well-wishers for their wishes since morning.
Sharma, who recently featured alongside star Indian women’s cricketers in Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues on their YouTube show ‘Double Trouble’, talked about not paying much heed to expectations and explained how it took him 5-6 years to deal with the same.
“Expectations, as long as you’re playing cricket, as long as you’re playing for the national team, will be there. And that is mandatory; that is not going to change. Be it a 10-year-old or a 60-year-old, they will expect you to score runs, they will expect you to do something magical every day. That shouldn’t be on your mind while you’re playing.
“And it has taken me a lot of time to deal with that. The first 5-6 years was very, very difficult and how I came out of it was just by ignoring everything around me. It’s important to create a shield around yourself and not all the things outside shouldn’t travel inside that. How you do that is by mentally staying strong,” Sharma was quoted as saying on Double Trouble.
Rohit Sharma on 2019 World Cup performance
Sharma, who has undergone a stellar transformation since regularly opening for India, had a phenomenal ICC Cricket World Cup last year. Having scored 648 runs in nine ODIs at an average of 81 and a strike rate of 98.33 including five centuries and a half-century, Sharma emerged as the highest run-scorer in the tournament.
Having said that, the right-hand batsman opined that he finds no fun in scoring centuries when the team ends up on the losing side. While India played well throughout the tournament, they were found wanting in testing conditions in the semi-final against New Zealand.
“Firstly, I don’t play for anyone; I play for myself and I play for the team. I want to contribute in whatever way I can and make sure that the team wins. Because I’ve seen it – you score 100, 200 or 300, but there is no fun if you don’t win the game.
“That’s what happened to me in the World Cup. All those hundreds, I don’t know where it’s lying. It’s lying somewhere, because we don’t have the trophy,” Sharma said.
