After the devastating loss to Australia in the 2023 ODI World Cup final, former India captain Rohit Sharma made the shocking admission on Sunday that he considered retiring because he “felt that the sport had taken everything out of me.”
The Indian team had an incredible run in that competition at home under Rohit’s leadership, winning nine straight games to go to the final. However, Travis Head’s game-winning hundred in the crucial game crushed India’s dreams.
“After 2023 World Cup final, I was completed distraught and felt like I didn’t want to play this sport anymore because it had taken everything out of me and I felt I had nothing left,” Rohit said during a Masters Union event.
“It took some time and I kept reminding myself that this is something I truly love, that it was right in front of me, and I couldn’t let it go so easy. Slowly, I found my way back, regaining the energy and getting myself moving again on the field.
“Everybody was extremely disappointed, and we just couldn’t believe what had happened. It was a very tough time for me personally because I had put everything into that World Cup not just two or three months before it, but ever since I took over the captaincy in 2022,” he added.
Rohit, who was stripped of his ODI captaincy earlier this year and retired from T20Is and Tests, still plays in the 50-over format and hopes to make one last run at the 2027 World Cup to round out his career.
“My only goal was to win the World Cup, whether it was the T20 World Cup or the 2023 World Cup. So when it didn’t happen, I was completely devastated. There was no energy left in my body. It took me a couple of months to recover and bring myself back,” said Rohit.
Rohit helped the Indian side win the T20 World Cup in the Americas less than a year after that setback to Australia in Ahmedabad, but it was very hard to get over the hurt of the loss in November 2023.
“I guess when you invest so much into something and don’t achieve the result, it’s a very natural reaction. That’s exactly what happened with me. But I also knew that life doesn’t end there.
“It was a big lesson for me how to deal with disappointment, reset, and start fresh. I knew that something else was coming the 2024 T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies and I had to shift all my focus towards that.
“It’s very easy to say this now, but at that moment, it was extremely difficult.”
