ODI World Cup 2023: India captain Rohit Sharma says pressure natural for cricketers; stresses on finding balance

Sharma said that the World Cup is the biggest prize in a cricketer’s career but focused on the importance of following a procedure in order to achieve the feat.

Being an Indian cricketer, Rohit said, always comes with pressure but what the team can do is do what is required and focus on cutting it down by not thinking much into the past and/or present.   | Photo Credit: AP

“It will be nice to win a World Cup.” 

In the 2019 World Cup semifinals, India lost four wickets inside the PowerPlay against New Zealand with the score reading 24 and went on to lose the game by 18 runs. 

The entire top order that collapsed like a pack of cards averaged 61.60 in that tournament, but it only took one ball to make it irrelevant.  

Rohit Sharma, the highest run-scorer in that edition with 648 runs, got out on his first false shot, Virat Kohli on his third, and KL Rahul on his first. In all - a matter of 19 balls, and the game was buried then and there, more or less.  

Four years down the line, Rohit, a first-time captain in the World Cup, was clear about going into the six-week-long campaign, [and] said that eventually the team needs luck.  

“And then obviously, we have to leave a lot of things to Almighty as well because we need that luck, a little bit of luck in the tournament. I hope we get that luck,” the 36-year-old captain said during the pre-match press conference ahead of the opening fixture against Australia. 

Rohit asserted that all that the team could do was follow the process.  

“You know, you want to win the World Cup. It’s the biggest prize that you can have in your career. But again, there’s a way to do it. There’s a procedure that you need to follow. There’s a process to it.”  

Finding a balance

Sharma said that it is important for the team to not get too desperate, lest the team should go off balance. 

“In desperation, you can do so many things that can lead to so many other things as well. But you’ve got to find that balance, right? Balance to stay desperate and stay hungry for, scoring runs, lifting the trophy, winning games, whatever that is.”  

“Keeping it simple” 

Dealing with pressure

Being an Indian cricketer, he said, always comes with pressure but what the team can do is do what is required and focus on cutting it down by not thinking much into the past and/or present.  

“Pressure is always there. We are Indian cricketers. We are supposed to go through pressure times and pressure situations. 

With focusing on the controllables, the Indian team will once again begin its quest on Sunday here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium to reclaim a lost treasure from the trophy cabinet.  

And as captain Rohit said, “We’ll come here tomorrow and see what it is like, because in India, every day is a new day, and everything changes every day.”