India last triumphed in an ICC competition in 2013,
when M. S. Dhoni took home the Champions Trophy. Ten years later, captain Rohit
Sharma claims he won’t let his team suffer in the 50-over cricket tournament,
which gets underway on Thursday with the match between the current champions
England and New Zealand in Ahmedabad.
“Yes, we have not won; it’s fine! I’m not a person who
overthinks and puts myself in a tough place where I’m not able to make a
decision. England started winning now; in 2019 they won the World Cup after so
many years. It happens. Australia is the only consistent team who have won.
After 2007, they won the ODI World Cup in 2015. They won the T20 World Cup in
Dubai,” Sharma told .
So who will win the Cup? “I don’t have an answer for
it. How can I say that now? All I can hope is that the team is in a good space.
Everybody is fit and fine. That’s all I can hope for. I cannot say beyond this.
Space is such an important factor and it’s a very key thing now,” he said.
Last year in Australia, Sharma had taken over the
captaincy from Virat Kohli but the jinx had continued. Now he has a chance to
leave a legacy, but he said he doesn’t like to think in those terms.
“Every year there is an ICC trophy now; if you don’t
win it’s an unsuccessful year! People just forget what good work has happened
in these 10 months. Rightly, as the Indian cricket team, we are expected to win
major trophies. We are one of the top teams in the world. We have to be good at
it. It has been disappointing for sure,” Sharma said.
At 36, this could be his last World Cup as a leader
and probably as a player. Does he feel that the captaincy came to him at the
right time or was it delayed? “Obviously, you want to be at your peak for this,
say when you are 26-27. But you cannot always get what you want. You are
talking about the Indian captaincy and there have been stalwarts in the Indian
team. Many more players deserved to be the captain of the team. I had to wait
for my turn and that’s absolutely fair enough. The guys before, Virat was
before me, so was MS (Dhoni),” he said.