Indian skipper Rohit Sharma stays optimistic despite long wait for ICC Trophy

Rohit Sharma (Pic: File Pic)

India skipper Rohit Sharma has the belief that their "time will come" to win the ICC trophy. Recently, Team India faced a humiliating loss at the ICC World Cup 2023 final against Australia. They last won an ICC Trophy under MS Dhoni's captaincy by clinching the Champions Trophy title in 2013.

"The last three years have been great. Except for winning the finals of ICC trophies, we have won everything," Rohit said while talking to JioCinema on the sidelines of their opening Test against England here.

Also Read: Pitch invader wearing Kohli's jersey interrupts play, runs into Rohit: Watch

"That's one thing we've not been able to accomplish, but I think time will come. All we need to do is stay in a good mindset, not worry too much about the past, because you can't change the past.

"What you can change is what is going to come next, so all of us are quite focused on that. We are playing our hearts out."

After being the runners-up in the T20I World Cup 2014, the "Men in Blue" faced exits in the 2015 ODI World Cup, the 2016 T20 World Cup, and the 2019 ODI World Cup. The wait for an ICC trophy continued with the defeat in the finals of the Champions Trophy 2017 and semi-final loss in the T20 World Cup 2022.

Also Read: James Anderson: A burly fast bowler

They also lost the finals of the first two World Test Championship cycles.

Rohit Sharma, known for his aggressive style of strokemaking, further spoke about his approach to captaincy.

"I wanted to bring about certain change, players going out there and playing with a lot of freedom. I wanted to take the statistical side of cricket out of this team.

"Numbers are overrated. In India, we do talk a lot about numbers and all of that. I got five hundreds in the 2019 World Cup, but we still lost. The hundreds don't matter.

"I may think about them may be 20 years later after I retire, but what did we get? I wanted the trophy. "If you don't win trophies, I don't think those 5-6 hundreds make too much sense. Team sport is all about winning trophies, not about individual accomplishments," he added.

(With PTI Inputs)