With India’s quest to win the 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) final ending in a 209-run loss to Australia at The Oval, it also means that the side will have to do all the hard work again to have a chance of being in the final in 2025.
Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and captain Rohit Sharma are all aged above 34 and ahead of the next WTC cycle, there will be talk about blooding-in new players who can serve the Test team for long, as the side is set to make a transition, starting from the two Tests against West Indies in July.
Captain Rohit Sharma believes planning for the future will need for the Indian team to find the right players from their domestic cricket circuit that will help India in getting their first-ever WTC title.
“Any tournament you play, you start looking at what possibly you can do moving ahead. Honestly, the game just got over. We haven’t really given too much thought to about what we want to do in the future.”
“Obviously, there will be some talks around it and we’ll see whatever is required and whatever is best, in the brand of cricket we want to play in the next two years. And who are the guys who can do that role for us? That is the question that we need to find answers to. And there are a lot of guys, there are a lot of players who are doing really well in our domestic cricket as well,” said the India captain.
“It’s just about finding them and giving them that space, enough time to go forward and do the job for us. It’s all about that. The focus will be obviously on that, but also, I want to see where the next World Test Championship final is being played as well. That depends on where we play. Based on that, we will decide what sort of players we want to get ready and what kind of cricket we want to play,” said Rohit in the post-match press conference.
The loss in the WTC final in London means that pressure will be immense on India, without an ICC trophy since 2013, to deliver when the upcoming ODI World Cup is set to be held at home in October-November, with Rohit promising that the team will look to play in the quadrennial event in a different way.
“When the World Cup will be held in October, we will try to play in a different way. We will try to give people freedom and not think that we have to win this or that match. We have been thinking that this match is important, this event is important and things are not happening. So obviously We will have to think differently and do things differently. Our message and focus will be on trying to do something different.”
Rohit also feels the pressure on India over winning an ICC trophy hasn’t led to any lack of concentration to any team member while chasing an improbable 444.
“We have told the boys to play freely. And if it seems so, then hit, it’s a simple message. Whether it’s Test cricket, T20 cricket or one-day cricket, we don’t want to play under pressure. If you look at the innings, the way Gill and I started in the second innings, our entire effort was to hit and play and put pressure on them,” Rohit said.
“That’s why we were 60 runs in 10 overs. But if you play with that mindset, chances are you’ll get out. Then the comments and the people who talk about the lapse of concentration. There is no lapse of concentration.”
“It’s just that we want to play differently. We want to do something different. Obviously, we have played so many ICC tournaments and have not won yet. So, our effort is to play in a different way and try to do something different,” the India captain added.
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