|| CF DESK ||

In his first press conference since the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup final loss to Australia, India captain Rohit Sharma discussed the upcoming series against South Africa.

Reflecting on the year, Sharma acknowledged the team's mixed performance, with notable achievements but setbacks in key ICC events.

India had a commendable journey, reaching the finals of the ICC Men's World Test Championship in June, only to face defeat against Australia at The Oval. The disappointment continued in the Cricket World Cup, where they succumbed to Australia again in the finals.

The latter defeat proved to be particularly painful for Rohit's team, considering their impeccable performance throughout the tournament.

Expressing his thoughts ahead of the first Test against South Africa, Rohit Sharma admitted that the loss in the World Cup final was challenging to accept, emphasizing the team's frustration at stumbling in the final hurdle despite their excellent cricket leading up to the ultimate showdown.

“Up until that final, the way we played. You expect to go an inch further as well. But unfortunately, we couldn’t do it, that was the hard part for us. Because honestly, all these years, we worked really hard for this. And then you saw how we managed to play the first 10 games. And then the finals [happened].

“Obviously, there are certain things we didn’t do well in the final, that cost us the game. But until then, we couldn’t point out many things that we didn’t do this right or that right.”

However, Rohit tried to look at the bigger picture after the loss, and motivated himself to get back to the game.

“But it is hard [to recover] from a loss like that,” Rohit said. “There’s so much happening in life, there’s so much cricket. You've got to find that strength to move on from that. It takes time, it took time for me to move on from that but you got to move forward,

“Honestly, I said it also that we got a lot of encouragement from the outside world after that final as well. And that motivated me personally to make sure that I get up and start doing my job again. I’m batting as well as I could, whatever is in front of me, I’ll look to play.”