Rohit Sharma was off the radar for some family time ever since India lost to Australia in the finals of the ODI World Cup 2023 at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. It was a sheer heartbreaking sight to see India’s legends like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in tears after the defeat in the finals and no doubt they deserved a hard-earned break from the gruelling schedule of Indian cricket.
On Wednesday, in a video posted by Rohit Sharma’s team on the social media platform Instagram, Rohit Sharma is seen talking from his heart for the first time since India’s World Cup final heartbreak.
It was tough: Rohit
Rohit said that he had no clue how to bounce back from that defeat and he wanted to go somewhere with the family to find that peace and answers.
“I had no idea how to come back from this. The first few days I didn’t know what to do. You know, my family, my friends, kept me going, kept things pretty light around me, which was quite helpful. “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 shared by team45ro on Instagram.
The 50-over World Cup has always held a special place in Rohit’s heart and lifting that World Cup is the ultimate goal for him. “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,” Rohit added.
“I’m really proud of the team”
During his family time, Rohit acknowledged the appreciation and love that he received from the people he met and the people who dreamed of lifting the 50-over World Cup trophy along with Team India.
“I thought we did everything we could from our side. If someone asks me, what went wrong… because we won ten games, and in those 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.”
“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. But then, wherever I was, I realized that people were coming up to me and they were appreciating everyone’s effort, and 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 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 this kind of things… and not to bring out that frustration, that anger, it means a lot for us, 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 concluded.