Rohit Sharma Talks Tough Ahead of Champions Trophy and WTC Final; Highlights Success in IPL with Five Trophies

Mumbai: Rohit Sharma's hunger for success was reignited after leading India to victory in the T20 World Cup 2024. The captain fired a warning shot to the world cricket community as the ICC Champions Trophy and World Test Championship final loomed on the horizon. Following in the footsteps of MS Dhoni, Rohit became the second Indian captain to claim the T20 World Cup title, with a thrilling triumph over South Africa in the final in June. On the same historic day, Rohit bid farewell to his T20I career, alongside former captain Virat Kohli.

Taking the reins from Kohli in 2021, Rohit combined with head coach Rahul Dravid to transform the Indian team into world beaters. Under Rohit’s leadership, India played in the 2022 T20 World Cup semifinal and in the WTC and ODI World Cup finals in 2023 before tasting success in Barbados.

Despite that, Rohit’s hunger to add more trophies to his cabinet remains insatiable. “There is a reason I won five IPL trophies. I’m not going to stop, because once you get the taste of winning games, winning Cups, you don’t want to stop and we’ll keep pushing as a team. We’ll keep striving for better things in the future,” said the five-time IPL-winning captain at the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards.

As an extension, he wanted more success with India too as their ODI and Test leader. “We’ve got a couple of solid tours coming up, very challenging ones as well. For us, it never stops. Once you achieve something you always look forward to achieving more.

“That is what I will be doing. I’m pretty sure my teammates will be thinking on the same line. What I’ve seen in the last two years in Indian cricket, there’s some real excitement, some real good cricket is being played,” added the Indian captain who bagged the Men’s International Cricketer of the Year award.

The Indian captain also called Dravid, chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar and BCCI secretary Jay Shah ‘three pillars’ and credited the trio for backing him to extract the best from players without worrying about results.

“It was my dream to transform this team and not worry too much about the stats, the results, to make sure that we create that environment where people can go out there and play freely without thinking too much,” Rohit said.

“That is what was required. I got a lot of help from my three pillars, who are actually Mr Jay Shah, Mr Rahul Dravid (and the) chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar,” he said. “That was very critical for me to do what I did and obviously not to forget the players, who came in at different points in time and helped the team to achieve what we achieved.”