During his initial press conference following India’s elimination in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final against Australia, India captain Rohit Sharma deliberated on the forthcoming series against South Africa.
The year has been uneventful for the Indian cricket team. Although the team has generally performed well, it has struggled during crucial stages of significant ICC events. In June, the team advanced to the ICC Men’s World Test Championship finals before suffering a loss at The Oval to Australia. They were subsequently defeated by the same opponent in the Cricket World Cup finals.
The final loss was especially agonizing for the men of Rohit. The Men in Blue, who had performed impeccable cricket leading up to the championship match, faltered at the last hurdle.
Rohit told reporters prior to the first Test against South Africa that he found the loss difficult to comprehend.
“Up until that final, the way we played. You expect to go an inch further as well. But unfortunately, we couldn’t do it, that was the hard part for us. Because honestly, all these years, we worked really hard for this. And then you saw how we managed to play the first 10 games. And then the finals [happened].
“Obviously, there are certain things we didn’t do well in the final, that cost us the game. But until then, we couldn’t point out many things that we didn’t do this right or that right.”
Despite the setback, Rohit attempted to remain optimistic and motivated himself to return to the game.
“But it is hard to recover from a loss like that,” Rohit said. “There’s so much happening in life, there’s so much cricket. You’ve got to find that strength to move on from that. It takes time, it took time for me to move on from that but you got to move forward.
“Honestly, I said it also that we got a lot of encouragement from the outside world after that final as well. And that motivated me personally to make sure that I get up and start doing my job again.
“I’m batting as well as I could, whatever is in front of me, I’ll look to play.”
Although Rohit refrained from drawing parallels between the forthcoming South Africa series and the World Cup, he acknowledged the series’ significance for his team.
“Obviously it will be a big thing if we win a series here. I don’t know, if we win here if this win will be a soothing balm for the World Cup loss. Because a world cup is a world cup. It is tough to compare it with this series.
“But this series in itself is quite big. This has a very rich history to it. If we can achieve it, we’ll feel great. The boys will feel great, because we’ve worked so hard, we need something in return. We want something big. And everyone is desperate. It’s not just one or two or the senior players, but everyone is desperate for a win. Boys want to do it, want to bring glory for the country. I hope we can do well in this series. We have all the tools to do well in the series.”
The first Test between the two sides kicks off in Centurion on the Boxing Day.
