Rohit Sharma on Tuesday said India won the Champions Trophy earlier this year following processes established during Rahul Dravid’s tenure, crediting the team for buying into the ideology set by the former captain-coach pair.
With Rohit and Dravid at the helm, India bounced back from their heartbreak of losing in the final of 2023 ODI World Cup at home to Australia by winning the next two ICC events — the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy.
“Look, I love that team, loved playing with them and it’s a journey that we were all into, for many years. It’s not about one year or two years of work. It was about getting into work from many years,” Rohit said during the CEAT Cricket Rating awards here.
“We’d come so close of winning that trophy many times but we couldn’t just get over the line. That is where everyone decided that we need to do something different and there’s two (ways) to look at it.” “There’s always a thought of doing that and then actually going and doing that. It cannot be done by one or two players. We needed everyone to buy into that thought, which was good from everyone,” Rohit said.
Rohit, who received a memento for winning the Champions Trophy, revealed the details around the team’s philosophy during the two ICC events which India won under his captaincy.
“All the guys who took part in that competition (Champions Trophy) got into that thought process of how to win games and how to challenge ourselves and not be complacent and not to take anything for granted,” he said.
“Those were the qualities that we tried to bring in and we thought it was a good method of just going and doing that repeatedly. Everyone enjoyed that process. Once we got over the line when we won the first game, we completely put that game aside and then started focusing on the next one.” “That was really good from the team and that is something that helped me and Rahul bhai when we were planning for the (2024) T20 World Cup, and then on to the Champions Trophy. We just carried it well.
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“In 2023, although we didn’t cross the line in the finals, we set out to do something as a team and everyone did that,” he added.
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir, and not Dravid, was the team’s head coach when India won the Champions Trophy.
Rohit said he took a lot of pride in trying to excel in all three formats, adding that he knows what is expected from the upcoming tour of Australia, ahead of which he was removed as the ODI captain.
Rohit, who has been replaced by Shubman Gill as the captain in both Tests and ODIs now, will be a part of the Indian squad for the three-match ODI series in Australia along with Virat Kohli. The series starts on October 19.
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“I personally took a lot of pride in trying to excel in all three forms whenever I had the opportunity and that is something that a few others also did and that eventually rubbed off on the team as well,” Rohit said.
“I love playing against them. I love going to Australia. It’s a very challenging country to play cricket. People there love the game as well,” he said, talking about the Australia tour.
“But certainly, Australia is a different challenge every time they have played against us. Having been there now several times, I do understand what to expect. Hopefully we can go there and do what the Indian team is supposed to do and get the result in our favour,” he said.
