Rohit Sharma breaks silence on World Cup final defeat: 'It was very hard to get back and start moving on'

Rohit Sharma has finally broken his silence on India’s heartbreaking defeat in the ODI World Cup 2023 final to Australia last month. Under Rohit’s captaincy, India won 10 matches on the trot and stormed into the final at home with an unbeaten streak, but lost to Australia by six wickets in the summit clash which was played at the Narendra Modi Stadium Stadium in Ahmedabad and in front of close to one lakh fans. Coach Rahul Dravid spoke at the post-match press conference after the crushing defeat but Rohit was missing. The 36-year-old also did not appear in media in the last 24 days but has finally come out with an emotional video message, reflecting on the emotional World Cup. He shared the challenges and emotions experienced during the tournament. “After the final, it was very hard to get back and start moving on, which is why I decided that I need to get my mind out of this. 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, were dreaming of lifting that World Cup, along with us,” Rohit said in a video on Instagram. “Everywhere we went during this entire 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 half month period. But again, if I think more and more about that I feel quite disappointed that we were not able to go all the way,” he added.

Rohit, who stayed away from the limelight in the interim period after the World Cup final defeat, added that the appreciation shown by fans over Team India’s performance “meant a lot” to him and has given me motivation to “get back and start working again”. “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 good. Along with them, I was healing as well. I felt, okay these are the kind of things you want to hear,” Rohit said. “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.” Rohit, however, did not shy away from admitting that the 50-over World Cup was the pinnacle for him and it was disappointing to fail at the final stage. “I’ve always grown up watching the 50-over World Cup. To me, that was the ultimate prize, the 50-over World Cup. We’ve worked all these years, for that World Cup. And it is disappointing, right? If you don’t get through it, don’t get what you want, what you’ve been looking for all this while, what you were dreaming of. You get disappointed. You get frustrated as well at times,” Rohit said.