India captain Rohit Sharma is fully focused on the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season with the Mumbai Indians. With the captaincy responsibility in the T20 league off his shoulders, Rohit Sharma is purely looking to enhance his skills as a batter, especially with the T20 World Cup set to take place in June this year.
Rohit Sharma, who is 36 years old at present, however, has also seen talks about potential retirement hovering around him. But, as far as the Hitman is concerned, retirement isn’t something that he has in his mind at the moment, with there still being hunger to win big events for India.
Test of mettle for Rohit Sharma.
Rohit Sharma The captain , however, counts India’s recent 4-1 triumph in the home Test series against England as a significant achievement and doesn’t believe that a home victory, even over a top side, is lesser when compared to an overseas triumph.
“You might enter the field with a plan, but when you see things moving differently, you have to change it. When we played recently against England, we came across a different team, they were playing cricket differently. Each batter came and challenged us. So, we had to change our mindset.
“It is difficult to win away from home. They make life difficult when you are away. It is the same for other countries as well because it is
not easy when they come to India. You want to take advantage of that (home conditions),” he explained.
On his favorite moment in Test cricket, the elegant right-hander picked his maiden hundred as the most cherished one. Batting at No. 6, Rohit Sharma made a 301-ball 177 against the West Indies in Calcutta.
“India is all about scoring that hundred and then the crowd erupts… My first hundred was in a Test match in Calcutta. It was Sachin Tendulkar’s 199th Test, so the stadium was packed, some 70,000 people in the stadium. Probably it was (the best moment),” he said.
Rohit Sharma Makes Retirement Stance Clear With Big World Cup, WTC Final Remark ahead of WT20 2024
In a chat on ‘Breakfast With Champions’, Rohit Sharma touched upon the retirement topic, saying he is still motivated to win the World Cup for India, and potentially the ICC World Test Championship final.
“I haven’t really thought about retirement. But, I don’t know where life takes you. I am still playing well at this point in time – so I am thinking I am going to continue for a few more years and then, I don’t know. I really want to win the World Cup and there is a WTC final in 2025, hopefully India makes it,” said Rohit on the show.
Rohit Sharma also spoke about India’s ODI World Cup 2023 heartbreak where India were beaten by Australia in the final. Unbeaten in the entire tournament, Rohit’s India suffered a surprising defeat against Pat Cummins’ men to once again return from an ICC event empty-handed.
“50-over World Cup for me is the actual World Cup. We’ve grown up watching that World Cup. More importantly, it was happening in India in front of our home crowd. We played so well up until that final. When we won the semi-finals, I thought, now we’re just a step away. We’re doing all the things right.”
“What’s the one thing that can make us lose the World Cup? Not a single thing came to my mind. Because I thought we ticked all the boxes, we were playing good cricket. Confidence was there.”
“We were all supposed to have one bad day and that I guess that was our bad day. Don’t think we played bad cricket in that final, certain things didn’t go our way. But Australia were slightly better than us,” said Rohit Sharma in a YouTube chat show Breakfast With Champions, which was also attended by British pop singer Ed Sheeran.
Mumbai Indians are now on the winning ways and Rohit Sharma relieved from captainship duties would love to get his form set and clear ahead of World T20 2024 in June.