CricketIndividuals gave performances, we needed- Rohit Sharma on reaching WTC finals
Team India’s skipper, Rohit Sharma, has praised individuals for showing great character in India’s journey to the ICC World Test Championship. Next month, Team India will take on Australia in the World Test Championship finals at Oval Stadium in London. Recently, the BCCI shared a video in which Rohit Sharma is seen praising players and reflecting on the team’s journey. He says, “After the WTC final in 2021 in Southampton, we quickly had to regroup and get ready for the next cycle.
The team faced many challenges,” says Rohit Sharma
He further says, “I thought in that cycle we played some really strong cricket. We faced many challenges, and I thought to come out of there was obviously going to take a lot of character from not just some individuals but everyone.” India lost the WTC final in 2021 against New Zealand and went on to play against England after two months, winning two out of four tests, but the series was postponed to later.
Few important players won’t be playing in the final
Many individuals have given the performances we needed from them. India’s two most sensational batters, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer, who played an important role in India’s test cricket, won’t be playing in the final as the latter is down with an injury while the wicketkeeper-batsman is still recovering from a car accident he had earlier this year. These two were the only batsmen other than skipper Rohit Sharma to make more than 500 runs. On the other hand, Jaspreet Bumrah, who took 45 wickets in 10 tests, will also be out of the final as he is still recovering from an injury.
Ashwin on India’s growth
Since the beginning of the World Championship, India have been one of the most successful teams, which can be seen as they are in the No. 1 position in the ICC Men’s Test Team Rankings. The team has won 22 out of 36 matches in the WTC and made it to the finals twice. According to India’s excellent spinner Ravindra Ashwin, the turnaround for the team began in 2014 after MSD retired. He said, “MS Dhoni just retired, and we played a few tests. Pretty early on, we had to start a journey of our own. It is never easy without the seniors, but I can say that all the efforts we have put in have been really fruitful over the last two cycles of the World Test Championship. We are qualifying for the second time, which is a great achievement on its own. We would have loved to win the series in India, but Australia played some good cricket as well. However, we have been rewarded with this final because of the consistent cricket we played.
