Rohit said there was “no future plan” and that “what is happening will keep happening” in ODI cricket, when asked about where he stood in his career after winning back-to-back ICC titles. He had led India to victory in the 2024 T20 World Cup in June last year and retired from that format after the final.
At the post-match presentation, Rohit had high praise for KL Rahul’s calmness in a tense chase. Rahul was unbeaten on 34 off 33 balls in difficult batting conditions and said he was “sh**ting himself” towards the end of India’s chase of 252.
“Again, a very solid mind,” Rohit said of Rahul. “He never gets overawed by pressure around him. That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to have him in the middle phase, to try and finish off games for us. With his experience and class, there’s a bit of calmness when he bats.
“He picks the right shots to play under pressure situations, which obviously allows the other guys batting around him to come and play freely. For example, Hardik came out and played some really good shots in both games that gave us some freedom. Overall the batsmanship shown by all our batters throughout the tournament was superb.”
Rohit himself for India’s chase off to a powerful start, scoring 49 off 40 balls in the powerplay and going on to add 105 with Shubman Gill for the first wicket. Rohit finished with 76 off 83 balls.
“It makes it a lot easier; it gives you freedom as well,” Rohit said of India’s batting depth giving him the freedom to attack at the start. “Which is why I said earlier as well that we wanted to have batting depth as deep as possible. Jadeja coming at No. 8 gives you the confidence to go slightly hard up front with the new ball. If it comes off, it comes off. If it doesn’t, then so be it. As long as I’m clear in my mind, it’s the most important thing.”
Rohit also praised his spinners for living up to expectations. India stuck to their four-pronged spin strategy for the last three games, starting with the last group fixture against New Zealand when they first unleashed Varun Chakravarthy, who incidentally wasn’t in the preliminary squad of 15.
“Not just this game but right from the beginning, our spinners in particular, there’s too many expectations when you are playing on a pitch like that, but they never disappointed,” Rohit said. “We do understand their strengths, playing on pitches like these helped and we used it to our advantage. Throughout the tournament, in terms of bowling, we were very consistent.”
Varun finished the tournament as the second-highest wicket-taker. He took nine wickets in three innings at 15.11 apiece and with an economy rate of 4.53. He didn’t play India’s first group games against Bangladesh and Pakistan, but took 5 for 42 in his first opportunity, the third group match against New Zealand.
“He has got something different about him,” Rohit said. “When we are playing on such pitches, we want the batters to do something different and that’s when he becomes a lot more dangerous. He didn’t start off in the tournament for us, but when he played against New Zealand and picked up a five-for, we saw the kind of ability he possesses. We wanted to maximise that, and he didn’t disappoint. He’s got great quality in his bowling, luckily it came to use a various times.”
