Rohit Sharma on what India needs to cross the final hurdle in ICC tournaments: ‘Firstly I want all my players to be available’
10 years. It’s been over 10 years since India last lifted an ICC title. The 10th anniversary of their Champions Trophy triumph in June was a jarring reminder in the aftermath of the recent World Test Championship summit clash loss to Australia. Indian cricket has boasted talents unparalleled but has been unable to win a world championship title for what has been a considerable drought. Four defeat in finals and as many in the semifinals during the period.
So, when captain Rohit Sharma was asked as to what he things has been the final puzzle missing in the Indian lineup, pat came the response, “Firstly I want all my players to be available. I want all of them to be 100 percent. We don’t want any injury concerns.” This, a day before India take on West Indies in the first of two Tests that are part of a multi-format tour.
India go into the series missing some important names, the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, who miss out on the series owing to a recurring injury issue and a voluntary resting period respectively. While Shami has been the leader of India’s pace attack in Bumrah’s absence, the latter last featured for India in September last year – missing out on the subsequent T20 World Cup and the recent WTC Final. With less than 100 days remaining in a home ODI World Cup, Bumrah’s fitness remains a major concern.
Coming back to India’s dismal run in the ICC tournaments, the skipper was determined to look on the brighter side, “We’ve not crossed the line in a long time. But I feel, as long as you keep ticking the boxes and keep doing the right things, it will all fall into place. Over the years, we’ve done a lot of good things. It’s just that sometimes you want luck to be your side as well. If you look over last five-six years, we’ve played consent cricket. We’ve won everywhere. But yeah, winning championship is more important. Until we get that championship, we’re going to keep fighting for it.”
A new WTC cycle, a new opportunity
With India kicking off a new WTC cycle on Wednesday, Rohit denied dumbing down the West Indies series as a forgone conclusion and suggested that it was as important as any other fixture in the entire cycle.
“Every series you play for India is challenging. Whether it’s the first game of a WTC cycle or the last. Every game is important. We played two WTC cycles and two finals but couldn’t win what we wanted to. But this is a new opportunity,” he said.
The skipper further suggested that going forward, acclimatizing with the new players at hand will be a challenge for the team. “(It’s) a new team. Many new players have come in and will keep coming. That’s going to be a separate challenge in itself in this cycle. A good challenge. And to begin it against the West Indies….they play well at home. Their past record at their home grounds has been very good, so it will be a good challenge for our team. I’ll hope we live up to it and play well.”
