India skipper Rohit Sharma discusses the forthcoming series against South Africa in his first news conference after the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final defeat to Australia.
The Indian cricket squad has had a turbulent year. While they’ve done well overall, the team has stumbled in critical ICC tournaments. In June, the team advanced to the finals of the ICC Men’s World Test Championship before falling to Australia at The Oval. The same opponent then defeated them in the Cricket World Cup finals.
The last setback was very painful for Rohit’s guys. The Men in Blue had played faultless cricket all the way to the final, but fell at the last hurdle.
Rohit told media before of the first Test against South Africa that the setback was difficult to swallow.
“The way we played up to that final. You anticipate going an inch farther as well. But we couldn’t accomplish it; that was the difficult part for us. Because we worked so hard for this all these years. And then you saw how we got through the first ten games. Then the finals occurred.
“Obviously, there were some things we did poorly in the final that cost us the game.” But until then, we couldn’t say anything about how we didn’t do this or that correctly.”
However, following the defeat, Rohit sought to look at the wider picture and inspired himself to get back into the game.
“But it is hard [to recover] from a loss like that,” added Rohit. “There’s so much going on in life, so much cricket.” You must find the fortitude to go forward from this. It takes time, and it took time for me to move on, but you have to go on.
“To be honest, I also stated that we received a lot of encouragement from the outside world following that final.” That pushed me to get up and go back to work.
“I’m batting as well as I could, whatever is in front of me, I’ll look to play.”
While Rohit did not want to compare the forthcoming South Africa series to the World Cup, he did see it as crucial for his team.
“Obviously, winning a series here will be huge.” I’m not sure whether a victory here will be a consolation prize for the World Cup defeat. Because, well, it’s a world cup. It’s difficult to compare it to this series.
“However, this series is quite large in and of itself.” This has a long and illustrious history. We’ll be delighted if we succeed. The lads will be overjoyed since we’ve worked so hard and deserve something in return. We want something significant. And everyone is in a state of desperation. Everyone is anxious for a victory, not just one or two veteran players. Boys want to do it because they want to bring honor to their nation. I’m hoping we perform well in this series. We have everything we need to succeed in the series.”
The first Test between the two teams begins on Boxing Day in Centurion.
Rohit hopes to move on from his World Cup defeat with a strong showing in South Africa.
India skipper Rohit Sharma discusses the forthcoming series against South Africa in his first news conference after the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final defeat to Australia.
The Indian cricket squad has had a turbulent year. While they’ve done well overall, the team has stumbled in critical ICC tournaments. In June, the team advanced to the finals of the ICC Men’s World Test Championship before falling to Australia at The Oval. The same opponent then defeated them in the Cricket World Cup finals.
The last setback was very painful for Rohit’s guys. The Men in Blue had played faultless cricket all the way to the final, but fell at the last hurdle.
Rohit told media before of the first Test against South Africa that the setback was difficult to swallow.
“The way we played up to that final. You anticipate going an inch farther as well. But we couldn’t accomplish it; that was the difficult part for us. Because we worked so hard for this all these years. And then you saw how we got through the first ten games. Then the finals occurred.
“Obviously, there were some things we did poorly in the final that cost us the game.” But until then, we couldn’t say anything about how we didn’t do this or that correctly.”
However, following the defeat, Rohit sought to look at the wider picture and inspired himself to get back into the game.
“But it is hard [to recover] from a loss like that,” added Rohit. “There’s so much going on in life, so much cricket.” You must find the fortitude to go forward from this. It takes time, and it took time for me to move on, but you have to go on.
“To be honest, I also stated that we received a lot of encouragement from the outside world following that final.” That pushed me to get up and go back to work.
“I’m batting as well as I could, whatever is in front of me, I’ll look to play.”
While Rohit did not want to compare the forthcoming South Africa series to the World Cup, he did see it as crucial for his team.
“Obviously, winning a series here will be huge.” I’m not sure whether a victory here will be a consolation prize for the World Cup defeat. Because, well, it’s a world cup. It’s difficult to compare it to this series.
“However, this series is quite large in and of itself.” This has a long and illustrious history. We’ll be delighted if we succeed. The lads will be overjoyed since we’ve worked so hard and deserve something in return. We want something significant. And everyone is in a state of desperation. Everyone is anxious for a victory, not just one or two veteran players. Boys want to do it because they want to bring honor to their nation. I’m hoping we perform well in this series. We have everything we need to succeed in the series.”
The first Test between the two teams begins on Boxing Day in Centurion.