"It doesn't really matter": Skipper Rohit Sharma on India marching into World Cup as top ODI team
Sep 26, 2023
Rajkot (Gujarat) [India], September 26 : Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is not dwelling on India going into the upcoming World Cup as the No. 1 ODI team.
Last Friday, India climbed to No. 1 in the Men's ODI Team Rankings after registering a win against Australia by five wickets.
'The Men in Blue' (117 rating points) displaced their arch-rivals Pakistan (115) at the top of the rankings after the win in the first ODI. Australia remained third with 110 points.
Rohit ruled out India's ranking dominance in the ODI by saying, "It doesn't really matter what kind of ranking you go within or what sort of performances you've had in the past."
"Yes, it's a good positive thing to take forward, but you know that the sport these days are played on present. So we got to play very good cricket on the present day, not worry about what has happened in the past, what in terms of the ranking, where we stand and stuff like that," Rohit added.
Rohit went on to stress the importance of playing "good cricket" and emphasized that each player does their respective jobs and steps up when the situation arises.
"You got to play good cricket and you got to stay in the present. For us, you know, that is very critical. Everybody staying in the present, doing their job, putting the hand up when the team needs them to do it and things like that. So I think, I don't think anyone will be worried about the rankings at this point because we have bigger things to worry about," Rohit added.
Rohit went on to point out that India have challenged themselves in the Asia Cup and the Australia series to get ready as much as possible for the home World Cup.
"You play all these games and you try to improve whatever you lack. So we have done the same in the last two tournaments. These two matches that we played with Australia and also in the Asia Cup, we challenged our team by putting ourselves in difficult situations, played in difficult conditions," Rohit said.
"So I think preparation-wise, we have achieved quite a bit. Tomorrow's game obviously allows us to again test ourselves in certain areas of the game, whether we can keep up with the consistency that we have, that we have shown in these last two games. There is a bigger goal, bigger picture in mind at this point in time. So focusing on that will be very crucial for us and not worry about whether [we] whitewash [Australia]," Rohit added.
