As the Cricket World Cup 2023 commences, the Indian cricket team aims to finally end their long wait for an ICC title. It has been a decade since India last tasted success at the international stage, winning the ODI World Cup in 2011 and an ICC title in 2013. India captain Rohit Sharma, leading the team in his first ODI World Cup, discussed his captaincy stint in the Indian team. He admitted that it’s fair that Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni were given the captaincy before him.
In an interview with Indian Express, Rohit expressed that the ideal time to become captain of the national team would have been when he was 26-27 years old. However, he acknowledged that one cannot always get what they want. Rohit said, “You are talking about the Indian captaincy and there have been stalwarts in the Indian team. Many more players deserved to be the captain of the team. I had to wait for my turn and that’s absolutely fair enough. The guys before, Virat was before me, so was MS (Dhoni).”
Rohit also mentioned other players who, despite being stalwarts of Indian cricket, did not get the opportunity to captain the national team on a full-time basis for a long period. He cited examples such as Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, and Yuvraj Singh. According to Rohit, Yuvraj, a match-winner for India, should have been given the chance to captain at some stage. However, Rohit expressed his gratitude for the captaincy opportunity, stating that he would rather have it when he knows how to lead a team.
Regarding India’s goal of winning the World Cup, Rohit explained that the team wants to keep the pacers fresh and thus has selected more of them. Given the format of playing 11 games to reach the World Cup final, which they last played in 2019, it is challenging to participate in 11 ODIs within a month and a half. Therefore, the team aims to prevent any pacer from breaking down during the tournament by including a larger number of them in the squad.
Topics mentioned in this article are the Cricket World Cup 2023 and Indian cricket team.