Rohit Sharma, who will be spearheading India's pack in the two-match Test series against South Africa, spoke his heart out on the ODI World Cup 2023 final heartbreak, where they lost to Australia in the summit clash. In the pre-match press conference ahead of Boxing Day Test against South Africa, Rohit admitted that it wasn't easy for anyone amongst the Indian team to process the heartbreak. Despite winning 10 straight games in the World Cup, India ran out of steam in the final to extend their 10-year-long ICC trophy drought.
“If you had a World Cup up until the final, the way we played, we expected to go an inch further. We could not do it. It was a very hard part for all of us. We worked hard for all the years for this. We did not do certain things well in the final which cost us. In most games, there was not much pin-pointing. It is hard. There is so much cricket happening. You have to find the strength to move on. It took time to come out of that. You have to look forward. We got a lot of encouragement from the outside world and that motivated me,” Rohit said in the pre-match press conference on Monday, December 25.
However, Rohit will look to make up for the ODI World Cup final loss by helping India win their first Test series against Proteas on South African soil in the two-match contest which starts on December 26, Tuesday. Notably, in India's eight tours to South Africa since their initial visit in 1992, the home team has emerged victorious in seven, with the series in 2010/11 ending in a draw. Six of these South African victories were by a narrow margin of just one win.
Commenting on the challenging conditions in South Africa ahead of first Test, Rohit said,"It is not too late to start your Test career in these conditions. Speaking to the guys who have not been here, they are excited. About the conditions, bowlers dominate a lot. The bounce, lateral movement for the seamers is there. The cracks open up a bit and you see invariable bounce. Throughout the five days, I cannot pin point where you can bat nicely. We have experienced this whenever we have come here. It becomes tougher and tougher. You want to play against quality bowling attacks. It will be nice to put our hand up and play well. We have discussed how we want to go about it. In terms of prep, we came a week back and we had decent time in preparing for the Tests. There is complete freedom to the individuals as to how they want to play."
Hitman also lauded India women's cricket team's historic win over Australia in the one-off Test. Apparently, in a groundbreaking milestone, the Indian women's cricket team achieved their first-ever Test win against Australia on Sunday, December 24. On the final day of the one-off Test at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, Sneh Rana secured two crucial wickets, to wrap up Australia's innings for 261. Chasing a lowly 75-run target, Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues steered India to a historic eight-wicket victory over Australia.
“Wonderful the way how the India women's team played in the Tests against England and Australia. Good to see how involved they are in Test cricket. I saw the passion in everyone's face. We watched the win from the dressing room. Good that people want to play Test cricket. Getting the result was very pleasing. I hope they go from strength to strength. I hope the women's team play more Test cricket now and in the future,” Rohit said.
Here's India's squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk)
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