India’s plan for ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, reveals Rohit Sharma: Indian captain Rohit Sharma has talked through his World Cup memories and how India’s plan would look like in the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. While looking forward optimistically, Sharma believes the journey to lift the World Cup 2023 title won’t be easy and will have to be in the process for long.
India is set to host this edition of the 50-over World Cup individually. In the past, India has co-hosted the mega event with the help of other Asian cricket-playing countries. The 2011 World Cup was co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
While India may have slipped off from ending its World Cup drought several times in the past, and they even failed to go past the semi-finals in the last two World Cups, the Indian captain believes his boys can turn things around in the home tournament later this year.
“We are back home again this year, so hopefully we can turn things around,” Rohit Sharma said. “It’s still a long way to go and we know you can’t win the World Cup in one or two days, you’ve got to play well the entire month, month and a half, and be consistent.”
He added that the team is trying to cover all the bases and leave no stone unturned in its preparation for the marquee event scheduled to be held in India from October 5 to November 19.
“We are trying everything we can from our perspective to make sure we are ready for that World Cup.”
The Indian skipper explains his emotions during India’s 2011 World Cup win, which was bittersweet for him. Having been overlooked by the selectors for the ODI Squad, which was led by then-skipper MS Dhoni, when he was expecting a national call-up, was surely not easy.
India under the leadership of legendary MS Dhoni, lifted the ICC World Cup title in 2011, after 28 years. MS Dhoni and his boys defeated Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium in the epic final.
“2011 was the memorable one for all of us, I remember watching it from home, every single match. There were two kinds of emotions. One obviously I was not part of it so I was a little disappointed and I decided I was not going to watch the World Cup,” he explained.
“But again the second memory I remember was that India was playing so well. Quarter-finals and onwards, the big quarter-final [semi-final] was against Pakistan and I know how much pressure is on the players when you play all these games, so I can only imagine what each player must have gone through in that time.”
Sharma, who plundered magnificent 5 centuries during the 2019 ODI World Cup, believes India will get unmatched support at every venue they travel across India during the World Cup event and the people of the country are equally excited as we are to watch the action unfold.
“I know for a fact that every ground, every venue that we will be travelling to will get massive support. It’s the World Cup, so everyone is looking forward to this and the World Cup coming back to India after 12 years. People are quite excited and we can see the buzz already back home. I’ll be looking forward to playing in all venues,” Rohit said.
While going through the roller coaster ride of emotions, Sharma said he has never been this up close to the World Cup trophy, and it’s indeed beautiful.
“I have never seen this trophy from this close. When we won in 2011, I was not a part of the squad, but it is beautiful and has so many memories behind it. Hopefully, we can lift it, fingers crossed,” he concluded.
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