ICC World Cup 2019: “I’m here to play and score runs and lift the cup”: Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma is currently doing wonders in the ongoing ICC World Cup. With 647 runs so far, including five centuries which made the winning foundation for India. He is only 26 runs behind to surpass the batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar to score the highest runs. Tendulkar had scored 673 runs in 2003. However, Rohit Sharma has already equalled Tendulkar’s record of most centuries by a batsman in World Cups (six). Tendulkar took 44 while Rohit reached there in 15 innings.

Though these records don’t matter much to Rohit Sharma. He even didn’t aware of this feat as well and he clearly told this also in the post-match press conference.

“See, I’m not here for records,” he said after scoring his fifth hundred, against Sri Lanka in Leeds. “I’m here to play cricket. I’m here to play and score runs and lift the cup. That is what I’m here for. I’m not looking at all those things at all, honestly.”

Rohit further shared that he will be satisfied only if India win the title.

“No, not yet. If we win the World Cup then probably I would,” he said. “If not, then I can’t, because eventually winning the cup — winning the game is important, no matter how many runs you score or how many wickets you take.”

“For us, as cricketers, it’s important to get the job done, because we all have been looking for this World Cup, which comes four years,” shared the in-form opener.

You have to wait four years for this. Eventually the job for us is to go and win the finals, the semifinals before that, yes. But as long as that is not accomplished, no matter how many runs you score in the tournament or how many hundreds you get, you won’t feel satisfied,” added the hitman.

The in-form opener also shared that sometimes it becomes difficult to focus when everyone starts saying about this.

“It is very difficult. Trust me, because you’re in that fraternity where you meet so many people and they will talk about how well you’re batting, how many runs you’re getting, how many hundreds you’ve scored,” he said.

“But to just keep away from all that is very important and I’m trying to do that. Fortunate that we have a bunch of guys around us who do not discuss these kind of things too much, about personal milestones. And my family is here to distract me from that. So those are the things that are keeping me away from staying in the past, because I totally believe that staying in the past is not as important as staying in the present,” he told.

Rohit Sharma even shared that he doesn’t want to think about the records, instead wants to focus on the present.

“I don’t want to think about how many ODIs I’ve played or how many runs I’ve scored or how many hundreds I’ve got. I just want to stay in present, which is today, and take it from there,” shared the hitman.

“I just wanted to be in good space before the start of the World Cup. Because this year’s World Cup was a different format. A long format. And then the conditions here really matter a lot,” he further said.

The hitman further said that he wanted to be in the “good space” for the tournament and for this he left the game on the field only and start the new day afresh.

“So all those things put together, I personally wanted to be in good space, which I think I did pretty well. As soon as the game got away, I left everything behind and started focusing on the new day, which I think really helped me moving forward. And it did work here, but I don’t know if it’s going to work in the future as well, because every tournament is different,” he said.

“Every series you play is different. But here it is working for me. And that is what I was thinking before the start of the tournament, that I’ll try and be in good space by doing so many things. That is very personal. So I tried doing all of those things, which I think help and worked for me,” expressed Rohit Sharma.

As the team are doing well, they have some weaknesses as well. Even Sanjay Manjrekar also commented critically towards some players which Ravindra Jadeja replied angrily on Twitter. However, the opener said they would try to focus on the game as well.

“All this distraction will happen, but every individual is different, and it depends on how he wants to think about that particular incident or situation,” he said. “For me, I want to stay away from all of that and enjoy the beautiful weather in England. I have my family here as well. Most of the time I’m trying to do that rather than all those talks going around and things like that. Because as long as you’re playing that will happen.”

He said their only aim is to play well and win the trophy.

“A lot of people are staying in the same hotel as us who want us to win the World Cup, who want us to score runs, score centuries. So you kind of want to stay away from all of that because eventually our job is to do that, our job is to come here, play good cricket and win the World Cup, we all know that,” added Rohit.

“But constantly yapping in anyone’s ear is not right. So I think for us as cricketers, it’s important for us to just stay completely put that away and focus on the job at hand,” Rohit Sharma concluded.