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Mumbai, India
while on a YouTube chat show – Breakfast With Champions – with by British pop singer Ed Sheeran (Photo: Screengrab/Youtube)
It is roughly five months since India endured a tough loss in the final of the 50-over World Cup in Ahmedabad, but for India skipper Rohit Sharma the scars are still fresh, and he still yearns for a World Cup victory in a team India jersey, something he hopes to experience before he retires. Sharma was part of the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 but considers the 50-over World as the real deal, and after missing a golden opportunity last year, he still harbours hopes of playing till 2027 to have a shot at realising his dream.
“I’m still playing well at this point in time, so I’m thinking I’m going to continue for a few more years and then, I don’t know, until India," stuttered Sharma while on a YouTube chat show – Breakfast With Champions – with by British pop singer Ed Sheeran. Sheeran went on to complete the sentence for Sharma adding, “Win the World Cup?", to which Sharma said, “Yeah, I really want to win that. I really want to win that World Cup".
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Talking about the 2023 final, Sharma said that the team had confidence heading into the final against Australia and he had no reason to believe why would not India win the World Cup, yet a bad day at the office led to the heartbreak.
“50 over World Cup for me is the actual World Cup. We’ve grown up watching that 50 over World Cup. More importantly, it was happening in India in front of our home crowd and we played so well up until that final. I thought when we, when we won the semi-finals, I thought, okay, now, you know, we are just one step away from it. We are doing all the things right.
“What is that one thing that can make us lose this World Cup? And honestly, not a single thing came to my mind because I thought we ticked all the boxes. We were playing good cricket. Confidence was there," remembered Sharma, adding, “You’re all supposed to have one bad day and I guess that was one bad day.
“Yeah, they [Australia] had a very good day. To be honest, I didn’t think we played bad cricket in that final. Yeah, certain things didn’t go our way, but they were slightly better than us on that day," said Sharma.
But Sharma is eying the Silverware that has now eluded India twice – The World Test Championship Mace. India have made it to the final of the first two WTC finals – losing both, the first time to New Zealand in 2021 and to Australia in 2023.
“[The ]Test championship is happening in [at] Lords [in] 2025 as well. Hopefully, we make it there in the finals," he said.
