Much of India’s success over the past few years can be attributed to the leadership of Rohit Sharma. Under his captaincy, India clinched two back-to-back ICC titles, cementing their place as one of the most formidable teams. Their astonishing consistency in the last three ICC limited-overs tournaments has seen them lose only one out of 24 matches — a defeat at the hands of Australia at the 2023 ODI World Cup final in Ahmedabad.
Last year, India won the T20I World Cup jointly hosted by West Indies and USA, winning eight consecutive matches. And, most recently, they won the Champions Trophy, claiming five victories at a stretch. India’s fortunes changed dramatically after the 2022 T20 World Cup, which ended in disappointment for them.
“It all started back in 2022 when we played in the World Cup in Australia. Although we didn’t qualify for the final and lost in semis. But thereafter we made a lot of things very clear with the players that this is what we expect from you and this how we want you to play. So there was lot of clarity, a lot of conversations with the players to perform. Rohit said in a video on MI’s social media ‘Charcha with Rohit Sharma’.
"There needs to be a freedom amongst the group so that they go out and play without any fear. There were few lows, a few series that we lost but we never panicked and we never went away from our thought process."
"When you are building a squad the first thing that you need to put in front of you is what does the team want? Where did we lack in the previous series, previous tournaments? Why did we not get the results?"
Reflecting on his fruitful tenure as India captain, Rohit Sharma underlined team’s achievements.
"Look at what this team has achieved in this big three tournaments. After playing the tournament like that and getting defeated only once and that too in a final (2023 ODI World Cup)."
"But imagine if we had won that as well to go undefeated in three ICC tournaments is crazy, never heard of but I will take this, 23 wins in 24 games is unheard of. It looks very nice from the outside but the team has gone through a lot of ups and downs."