‘Imagine If We’d Beaten Australia In 2023’ - Rohit Reflects On India’s ‘Crazy’ Run In ICC Events

From the start of 2014 till the end of 2023, team India had won a grand total of zero ICC Trophies. But after finally breaking the trophy duck at the 2024 T20 World Cup, the Men in Blue have now gone two in two. 

But in a way, it was at the 2023 ODI World Cup that India’s dominance began, even though they did not go all the way there. They ran through every opponent before falling gut-wrenchingly short at the final against Australia. 

A proud Rohit Sharma reflected on the side’s ‘crazy’ dominance in ICC events, with them winning 23 of the last 24 games at ICC events.

"Look at what this team has achieved in this big three tournaments. After playing the tournament like that and getting defeated only once, and that too in a final [2023 ODI World Cup]," Rohit said in an interview posted on Mumbai Indians’ YouTube channel.

"But imagine if we had won that as well to go undefeated in three ICC tournaments is crazy, never heard of, but I will take this, 23 wins in 24 games is unheard of. It looks very nice from the outside, but the team has gone through a lot of ups and downs.

"We had some really tough times as well, but that is when you've got to celebrate. If you do things like this, you've got to celebrate. I feel that all the people who played these three tournaments deserve respect."

Rohit singled out the semi-final loss at the 2022 T20 World Cup as a turning point of sorts. There, after posting a below-par score batting first, India were hammered by 10 wickets by eventual champions England.

“Thereafter [post-2022 T20WC loss], we made a lot of things clear with the players that this is what we expect from you, and this is how we want you to play. So there was a lot of clarity, a lot of conversations with the players to perform," he said.

"There needs to be freedom amongst the group so that they go out and play without any fear. There were a few lows, a few series that we lost, but we never panicked and we never went away from our thought process. 

“When you are building a squad, the first thing that you need to put in front of you is what the team want. Where did we lack in the previous series and previous tournaments? Why did we not get the results?.”

Rohit, in the same interview, also reflected on India’s ‘up and down’ last nine months, and asserted how it’s a nice reflection of life in the larger context. While India did win the T20WC 2024 and the 2025 Champions Trophy, they lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia and got whitewashed 0-3 at home against New Zealand, losing a Test series at home for the first time since 2012.