Follow UsYou know the feeling when life doesn’t go your way, and you end up thinking about how to bring it back to normalcy.
Rohit Sharma’s life was on a similar trajectory after India lost the 2023 ODI World Cup final in front of 1,20,000 people in Ahmedabad against Australia. In fact, the Indian skipper opened up, stating that it was hard for him to return to normal life.
"It wasn't easy to digest, but life moves on. You have to move on in life. But, honestly, it was tough. It was not so easy to just move on,” Rohit said in the video posted on his Instagram.
"I have always grown up watching 50-over World Cup, and to me that was the ultimate prize. We have worked all these years for that World Cup… and it is disappointing, right? If you don't get through it, and you don't get what you want, what you've been looking for all this while, what you were dreaming of, you get disappointed, and you get frustrated as well at times."
India were unbeaten going into the final against Australia and were the better side across phases coming into that clash. However, on the day, owing to the wickets behaving indifferent across the two innings, the Men in Blue had to settle for a second-place finish, shattering the dreams of Rohit, who eyed his first World Cup title.
"I thought we did everything we could from our side. If someone will ask me, what went wrong… because we won ten games, and in that ten games, yes, we made mistakes, but that mistake happens in every game that you play. You cannot have a perfect game. You can have a near-perfect game. But you cannot have a perfect game," Rohit said.
"If I look on the other side of it, I'm really proud of the team as well. Because how we played was simply outstanding. You don't get to perform like that every World Cup. And I am pretty sure I am, at least, how we played up until that final, it would have given people a lot of joy, a lot of pride watching the team play."
Across the 11 innings, the Indian skipper scored 597 at a strike-rate of 125.94, often leading the Men in Blue to a stellar start. Even in the final, it was a one-way traffic early on in the Indian innings when Rohit was in full flow before a sensational catch from Travis Head ended his innings abruptly.
"After the final, it was very hard to get back and start moving on, which is why I decided that I need to go somewhere and just get my mind out of this," he said. "But then, wherever I was, I realised that people were coming up to me and they were appreciating everyone's effort, how well we played. I feel for all of them. They all, along with us, they were dreaming of lifting that World Cup, along with us.
"Everywhere we went during this entire World Cup campaign, there was so much support from everyone, who came to the stadium firstly, and people who were watching it from home as well. I want to appreciate what the people have done for us, in that one-and-a-half months. But again, if I think more and more about that I feel quite disappointed that we were not able to go through all the way.
"For me to see, you know, people coming up to me, telling me that they were proud of the team, you know made me feel really good to a certain extent. And along with them, I was healing as well. I felt, okay these are the kind of things you want to hear. When you meet people, when they understand what the player must be going through and when they know these kind of things… and not to bring out that frustration, that anger, it means a lot for us, for me definitely it meant a lot because there was no anger, it was just pure love from people that I met and it was wonderful to see that. So it gives you motivation to get back and start working again and look for another ultimate prize."