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10 years. It has been more than 10 years since India last lifted the ICC title. The tenth anniversary of their Champions Trophy victory in June was a stark reminder in the wake of the recent loss in the summit of the Test World Championship to Australia. Indian cricket boasted unparalleled talents but were unable to win the World Series title due to a severe drought. Four defeats in the finals and as many semi-finals during the period.
So, when Captain Rohit Sharma was asked what he considered to be the final missing puzzle in the Indian squad, Pat came up with the reply, “Firstly, I want all the players in the squad to be available. I want them all to be 100 percent. We don’t want any injury concerns.” This, a day before India play the West Indies in the first of two Tests that are part of a multi-format tour.
India is entering the series and missing some important names, such as Jaspreet Boumra and Muhammad Al-Shami, who are absent from the series due to repeated injury and a voluntary rest period, respectively. While Shami has been the captain of India’s pace attack in Bumrah’s absence, he made his last appearance for India in September last year – missing the subsequent T20 World Cup and the recent WTC final. With less than 100 days left in the home ODI World Cup, Bumrah’s fitness remains a major concern.
Going back to India’s poor run in the ICC tournaments, the captain was determined to look on the brighter side, “We haven’t crossed the line in a long time. But I feel as long as you keep checking the boxes and keep doing the right things, everything will fall into place.” Over the years, we’ve done a lot of good things. It’s sometimes you want luck to be on your side too. If you look at the last five or six years, we’ve played cricket very consistently. We’ve won everywhere. But yeah, winning the tournament is more Importance. Until we get that championship, we’ll keep fighting for it.”
New World Trade Center course, new opportunity
With India starting a new tournament at the World Trade Center on Wednesday, Rohit dismissed the omission of the West Indies series as a missed score, and suggested it was as important as any other match in the entire tournament.
“Every series you play for India is a challenge. Whether it’s the first game in the WTC tournament or the last. Every match counts. We played two WTC finals and two finals but we couldn’t win what we wanted. But this is a new opportunity.
The captain further suggested that going forward, adapting to the new players on hand would be a challenge for the team. “(It’s) a new team. Many new players have come in and will continue to come. That will be a separate challenge in itself at this tournament. A good challenge. And to start it off against the West Indies….they are playing well at home. Their previous record was on Their ground is very good, so it will be a good challenge for our team. I hope we can rise to it and play well.”
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