Will have to plan differently: Rohit Sharma after WTC mess

London: After yet another failure in an ICC final, Rohit Sharma feels his team needs to think and plan differently for the ODI World Cup at home in October-November.

Not being able to win a trophy in the last 10 years despite reaching the knockout stages consistently would weigh on any team and Rohit said his side too is “dejected”.

India’s last World Cup win came at home 12 years ago and as the ODI showpiece returns to the country, the pressure to win will be immense.

“When the World Cup will be held in October, we will try to play in a different way. We will try to give people freedom and not think that we have to win this or that match.

“We have been thinking that this match is important, this event is important and things are not happening. So obviously, we will have to think differently and do things differently. Our message and focus will be on trying to do something different,” said Rohit after a 209-run loss to Australia in the WTC final here on Sunday.

Rohit said the team will have to deal with the hype created during the World Cup in India.

“We have told the boys to play freely. And if it seems so, then hit. It’s a simple message. Whether it’s Test cricket, T20 cricket or one day cricket, we don’t want to play under pressure.

“If you look at the innings, the way Gill and I started in the second innings, our entire effort was to hit and play and put pressure on them. That’s why we were 60 runs in 10 overs. But if you play with that mindset, chances are you’ll get out.

“Then the comments and the people who talk about lapse of concentration. There is no lapse of concentration. It’s just that we want to play in a different way. We want to do something different.

“Obviously, we have played so many ICC tournaments and have not won yet. So, our effort is to play in a different way and try to do something different,” he explained.

After the completion of a WTC cycle, talk about transition is expected. A lot of the players in the side are on the wrong side of 30s and going into the next edition, the team will need to take some tough selection calls.

Asked about building the team for the cycle, Rohit said: “Obviously, any tournament you play, you start looking at what possibly you can do moving ahead. Honestly, the game just got over. We haven’t really given too much thought to what we want to do in the future.

“There will be some talks around it and we’ll see whatever is required and whatever is best, whatever the brand of cricket we want to play in the next two years. And who are the guys who can do that role for us?

“That is the question that we need to find answers for. And there are a lot of guys, there are a lot of players who are doing really well in our domestic cricket as well. It’s just about finding them and giving them that space, enough time to go forward and do the job for us.

“I also want to see where the next World Test Championship final is being played as well. Based on that, we will decide what sort of players we want to get ready and what kind of cricket we want to play,” he said.

Experienced batters not getting runs cost us the game

India’s star-studded batting lineup including Rohit himself, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubman Gill failed to deliver in both the innings.

“Now we have played two finals. You cannot really teach them how to bat in the little time that you have before the game. It’s all about getting yourself ready and how you can do that, it is completely up to you.

“I don’t want to be too critical about it – the reason I say that is because when we were here last time in (2021), a lot of the senior batters actually put their hand up and got us ahead in the series.

“Whether we played in Australia, we played in England, but yeah, like you said, this one-off game, if you’re mentally not there, you can lose a game. You know, and that is exactly what happened. We honestly wanted to give our best shot.

“Everybody prepared really well in the little time that we had, that is all you can do. But yeah, when you have in your top six, you know, five or six batters who have quite experience played in these conditions before and couldn’t go on to get big runs and that is what probably cost us the game. But I won’t call it a lapse of concentration,” said Rohit.

The captain said his team should have bowled better in the first innings and loose shot played by the batters in the second innings cost them the game.

‘There was only one or two camera angles, IPL has 10’

Cameron Green had picked up a spectacular catch to dismiss Shubam Gill in the second innings but since the ball was close to the ground, the replays were not conclusive. TV umpire gave Gill out but Rohit said the officials should have taken more time on the decision.

“I just felt disappointed with – not enough. The third umpire should have seen a little more replays of how the catch has been held. I think it was three or four times he saw and he was convinced with it. It’s not about whether it was given out or not out, you need to have a proper and clear information about anything.

“It’s just not about the catch, it can be about anything. That was, that is something that I was a little disappointed with – the decision was made quite quickly. When a catch like that has been taken, you need to be more than 100 percent sure because it’s a final and we were at that important stage of the game as well. So that was to me a little disappointing.

“And more camera angles should have been shown. There was only one or two camera angles that were shown. We’ve got 10 different angles in IPL. I don’t know why in a world event like this, there was no ultra motion that was seen or any kind of zoomed image was seen,” added Rohit.

‘Let’s be realistic’, Shashtri

Former India coach Ravi Shastri on Sunday sounded sceptical about the possibility of players getting extended gap after the IPL or practice games ahead of future WTC final matches unless there is a change in thought by all the stakeholders.

After India suffered a huge 209-run defeat against Australia at the Oval, head coach Rahul Dravid said arriving in England at least two weeks earlier and playing some side matches would have been ideal for the team ahead of the big game.

However, Shastri did not buy into the idea and put the onus on the players to make a choice.

“That’s never going to happen. Let’s be realistic. You’re going to get 20 days, but if that’s the case, you got to miss the IPL. The choice is yours (players),” Shastri said on Star Sports.

Shastri also hinted that the Board of Control for Cricket in India will have to sit down with the IPL teams to chalk out a way forward.

“It’s up to the establishment as well. I’m sure the BCCI is going to review this in the future. If the WTC Final is going to come after the IPL, in month of June, for that season, if your team qualifies for the final, there should be certain clauses put in for the franchises,” said Shastri.

Earlier, Shastri had also criticised the shot selection of Indian top-order batters, who let down the team.

“What’s amazed me though is the way that the pitch has behaved. Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara will be kicking themselves for playing the shots that they played. They were poor shots when they were batting beautifully,” said Shastri.