Rohit Sharma: 2019 World Cup taught me to play without fear

Speaking on JioStar's 'Captain Rohit Sharma's Roadmap for T20 World Cup', Rohit Sharma said that the 2019 World Cup taught him that personal runs mean little if the team doesn't win. This prompted a mindset shift: from 2020 onward, he focused on playing with intent, joy, and fearlessness. Over two years, he adapted this approach, which he fully implemented by 2022-2023, prioritising impactful performances over individual statistics.

"The 2019 World Cup was a big lesson for me. I scored so many runs there, but we did not win the World Cup. So I asked myself, what is the use of this? What will I do with these runs? Yes, they remain in your statistics column and all that, but for me, that was of no real use. That is when I decided that I would play for what makes me happy. That is why I started thinking differently in 2020. What I eventually implemented in 2022 and 2023 took me two years to adapt to, from 2020 to 2022. I realised that I had to play with intent and without any fear. Otherwise, it does not matter how many times I got out in the 40s or in the 90s; it never bothered me at all," Rohit Sharma said. The T20 World Cup 2024-winning captain also reflected on India's long ICC trophy drought, 13 years between World Cups (2011-2024), or 11 years if including the 2013 Champions Trophy. He acknowledged that despite consistently doing the right things, something was missing, possibly a "fear of failure." To overcome this, he emphasised giving players freedom, clarity, and confidence in their roles through one-on-one conversations.

"I have always believed that when the tide is going down, it's not going to stay down forever. It will come up at some stage. But I didn't think it would take 13 years. I didn't think it would go down so much that it would take 13 years to come back up. The last World Cup we won was in 2011, and then we won again in 2024. That's 13 years. Yes, we did win the Champions Trophy in 2013, so technically it was an 11-year ICC trophy drought. But 11 years is still a long time," Rohit said.

"We always believed that we had to keep doing the right things, and we did keep doing the right things. Unfortunately, something was missing. There was something we weren't able to do. I felt it might have been a fear of failure creeping into all of us, maybe yes, maybe not, I don't know, but that was my feeling. We wanted to remove that fear. And how do you do that? By giving everyone freedom and clarity. By telling them, 'You are the guy, you are going to do the job for me, and no matter what happens, we will back you as much as we can.' Along with that, giving clarity about their role and what we expect from them. I wanted to do this individually, to speak to players one-on-one and tell them, 'This is what we expect, this is your role.'"

"By doing this, you build a strong relationship with the player. And when the time comes for him to go out there and perform, he won't be afraid. He will take it on. Because 'if the captain and coach have told me this is what they expect, I'm not going to be afraid to do it,'" Rohit Sharma added.

- ANI