India head coach Rahul Dravid heaped huge praises on the skipper Rohit Sharma for his “exceptional” leadership as the captain and his leading from the front with the bat in the World Cup 2023.
India’s dream of lifting the World Cup 2023 trophy at home, in front of 120,000 fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium came crashing down on Sunday the match unfolded with the spirited Pat Cummins’ team once again showing the Aussie champion blood. Australia won their 6th ODI World Cup title by defeating India by 7 wickets in the World Cup 2023 final in Ahmedabad.
India had been near flawless heading into the final with 10 wins in 10 games. Rohit Sharma ended as the second-highest run-scorer in the tournament with 597 runs, scored at a bumper strike rate of 125. Rohit even gave a cracking start in the final with 47 runs in 31 balls but India’s innings couldn’t gain momentum after his wicket.
In the press conference after the final, head coach Rahul Dravid lavished praises on Rohit Sharma for his captaincy and his batting.
“Rohit has been an exceptional leader. He has got the dressing room, always available for any conversations. He has given a lot of time & energy in this campaign. Even his batting, he has always set the tone for us. He wanted to lead by example”.
We were looking at 270-280 but we kept losing wickets: Rohit Sharma
After Rohit’s wicket, India slipped to 81/3 before Virat Kohli and KL Rahul rebuilt the innings. However, they were slow in their approach in their partnership of 67 (109). Once Kohli was gone for 54, India kept losing wickets at regular intervals. The loss of Rahul for 66 runs was a big dent to India’s innings which then dragged to 240. Australia chased it down with 7 wickets to spare and 7 overs remaining courtesy of Travis Head’s brilliant century.
Rohit said: “The result has not gone our way. We were not good enough today. We tried everything but it wasn’t supposed to be. 20-30 runs more would have been good, KL and Kohli were stitching a good partnership and we were looking at 270-280 but we kept losing wickets. We didn’t put enough runs on the board.”
