NEW DELHI, July 2
Rohit Sharma has endured several heartbreaks during his playing career, and the most recent one came in Ahmedabad, not very long ago in November last year when Australia defeated India for the ODI World Cup crown.
Seven months later, Rohit seems to have moved on from the bitter memories against the Kangaroos, after the Indian team under his leadership clinched the T20 World Cup trophy under his leadership. On Saturday after India defeated South Africa by seven runs to walk away with their second T20 World Cup trophy, Rohit was seen kissing the Kensington Oval pitch in Barbados, an action which the Mumbaikar felt was “instinctive” and the feeling of winning the cup has still not sunk it yet. “Nothing was scripted. It was all coming instinctively. I was feeling the moment. When I went to the pitch, that pitch gave us this trophy. I will remember that ground forever in my life and that pitch as well. I wanted to have a piece of it with me,” he said. “Those moments are very special, the place where all our dreams came true and I wanted something of it.” Describing the feeling of winning the trophy as “surreal”, Rohit said he doesn’t care about his sleep as he wanted to live every moment of the triumph.
“The feeling actually is surreal. It hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s been a great moment right from the time the game got over to till now. It feels like a dream. It feels like it hasn’t happen. Although it has happened but it feels like it hasn’t happened .. (laughs),” he said.
“That’s the emotions and feelings you have. We have dreamt about this for such a long period of time, we worked hard as a unit for such a long period of time and to see this (the trophy) with us it feels quite relieved as well. When you worked hard for something and eventually at the end you get it, feels really really nice.” “Last night we had a good time, we had a blast with the teammates till the early morning. I would say I didn’t sleep properly but that’s absolutely fine by me. There is lot of time for me to go back and sleep. I am going to catch up on that. I want to live this moment, each minute, each second that is passing by and will try to make the most out of it,” he added. Barely an hour after guiding India to the title, Rohit joined his opening partner Virat Kohli in announcing his retirement from T20 internationals. The 37-year-old Rohit is the format’s highest scorer with 4231 runs in 159 matches for India, with five centuries. He was a part of the team that won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, and is among the only two cricketers along with Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan to feature in every T20 World Cup since.
