Important to bury the past and focus on present, says Rohit

MELBOURNE: Pressure is constant in anyone’s life and Rohit Sharma would prefer calling it a challenge when India faces Pakistan in a World Cup game or try to exorcise the ghost of not winning an ICC silverware for nine years.

The last ICC tournament that India had won was the 2013 Champions Trophy and it was at a nascent stage as far as Rohit’s opening stint in international cricket was concerned.

“Yeah, look, I don’t want to use the word pressure because pressure is constant. It’s not going to change ever. I would like to take this as a challenge. I want to use that word challenge a little more. This Pakistani team is a very challenging team. All the Pakistani teams that I’ve played from 2007 until 2022, they’ve been a good team,” said the India skipper, not wanting to engage in unnecessary war of words.

But there was no running away from the fact that India hasn’t won any major trophy since 2013.

“Okay, nine years we have not won the ICC trophy and things like that. Of course, it’s there in the back of our players’ mind, but it’s important to just keep that away and just focus on the job at hand at the moment,” Rohit said.

“My personal belief is that if you think too much of the past, I think you won’t be able to focus on the present. So, it’s important to focus on the present.”

Rohit also opined that India plays so little cricket with Pakistan, he doesn’t exactly have a reference point about the mindset of the opponent led by Babar Azam.

“Luckily for us, we got to play them in Asia Cup twice, otherwise we don’t play them at all. So, it’s very hard to gauge what sort of mindset they play with, and for those two games that we played in Asia Cup,” he added.

India will open its T20 World Cup campaign in a much-anticipated clash against arch-rival Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, here on Sunday.

Like his predecessors Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli, Rohit didn’t sound different when he said that the team that plays well on the day will win.

“You’ve just got to be coming on that particular day with very well-prepared thinking how you’re going to beat that opposition and try and keep it simple really, not think about so many things because it can only add pressure, or it can confuse you a little bit,” he said.

“The more you keep things simpler, easier for you to go and get the job done. That is what our focus has been and constant talk about how we can just relax ourselves a little bit,” he signed off.