India under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy dominated the 2023 ODI World Cup at home. They beat all the remaining nine teams and qualified for the semifinals by finishing top of the league stage.
Then they got one back at New Zealand for the semifinal loss they suffered in the previous 2019 edition and marched into the final.
However, an inspired Australian team led by Pat Cummins got the better of them in the final which was the only time they looked lacklustre in the entire tournament. Rohit was seen teary-eyed with his cap covering his face as the Australians celebrated amidst dead silence at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
While Rohit made no attempt to hide the pain of that loss, he explained how incredible the dressing room atmosphere was during the tournament where there was only one bad day.
“The best part of that World Cup is the brand of cricket we played. We were really enjoying ourselves. On matchdays, I used to get up and think to myself ‘Aaj Mazaa Aayega’ (today’s going to be fun). The environment we had in the dressing room was the best I had ever witnessed. It wasn’t just me, but many people told me they felt the same,” Rohit said in an interview with journalist Vimal Kumar.
“The credit of that goes to all the 15 players and all the support staff,” the Indian ODI captain added.
Rohit himself had a superb outing with the bat as he finished with 597 runs from 11 innings at an average of 54.27. His blazing starts gave the middle-order great foundation, but his dismissal for 10th over halted India’s momentum in the final as they were only able to post 240 all out in the 50 overs, unlike their all other matches where they posted massive totals.
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Australia chased it down in a brilliant fashion with opener Travis Head scoring a match-winning 137 off 120 balls as the Aussies clinched their fifth ODI World Cup crown.
“For 10-15 days after the final, I was in disbelief that we lost that match. After that, I knew that I had to disconnect myself from all the chatter around it, but it’s not easy to do that. When something you had dreamed of and worked hard for slips through your fingers, it’s hard to move on from it,” Rohit said.
Just a day ago, Rohit had called time on his Test career, bringing an end to his red-ball career spanning across 11 years.
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