Rohit Sharma, who captained India at the 2023 World Cup and led them to the final where they agonizingly lost to Australia, has opened up on the heartbreaking WC final loss in an emotional video with his IPL team Mumbai Indians (MI).
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India won all nine games in the group stage, showing barely any sign of weakness during the run. They beat New Zealand comfortably in the semi-final to win their 10th game on the trot and were the overwhelming favourites to clinch their third World Cup, aided by the fact that they would be playing on their own turf and cheered on by magnanimous support from the crowd.
However, it wasn't meant to be on that fateful day as Australia defeated the 2011 champions by six wickets to win a record-sixth World Cup.
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Rohit Sharma: 'It wasn't easy to digest WC loss, but life moves on'
In a video posted by Rohit's digital team on Instagram, the 36-year-old is seen talking about how he dealt with the World Cup loss.
It is the first time since 19th November, the day when the World Cup final was played, that Rohit has spoken publicly about what he went through following the loss.
The pain was still visibly clear on Rohit's face in the video as he said that it was tough to digest the loss but his family and friends kept things going and helped him recover from what was his biggest professional setback ever.
I had no idea how to come back from this. The first few days I didn’t know what to do. My family, and 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 easy to move on.
Rohit also went on to add that winning the 50-over World Cup was his biggest dream as a child and as a cricketer.
I have always grown up watching the 50-over World Cup and to me, that was the ultimate prize. So we've worked all these years, you know, 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.
You can watch the full video here:
What next for Rohit Sharma?
The Indian captain will be leading India's Test squad in the two-match Test series against South Africa. It is unclear, though, what lies for Rohit as far as his future in T20Is is concerned with the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup set to be played in a little less than six months' time.
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