'Tried to convince Dravid to stay on, but he has priorities'
NEW YORK: "When you don't have to wait for more than 10 minutes at the immigration counter in the United States, you know this is important."
Rohit Sharma
was being his usual cheeky self on the eve of the start of India's month-long
T20 World Cup
journey.
Half of it will be in the US and the skipper wants to leave behind "something memorable" for all those who are rooting for him.
While
Rohit
doesn't want to overburden himself with expectations, there is an added element that is driving him, even though he doesn't want to put it out in as many words.
Coach
Rahul Dravid
announced on Monday that it would be his last assignment and you can see that Rohit didn't want it to happen that way. "I tried to convince him to stay on, but he has priorities. With
Rahul
bhai, my equation goes way deeper than a coach-captain relationship. We go a long way back, he was my first international captain and he has had a lot of influence on me," Rohit said, as the obvious question lingered: "Do you want to do it for him?"
Rohit probably got a little emotional, but he had to pull the curtains down on any possible overflow. "We don't want to look too far ahead, but I won't say anything more than that." Rohit kept it at that.
Before the ODI World Cup opener in Chennai last October, the captain had said that there was a sense of "unfinished business". After a magnificent run, it stayed unfinished and Rohit struggled for a very long time to come to terms with it after coming so close.
"I thought a lot about it, for a very long time. But then that's what it is," Rohit said, adding that he doesn't want to stress himself out with a must-win mind-set. "We will take it as it comes, for now it's tomorrow's game."
Ireland are an opposition that India aren't too familiar with. In fact, Rohit hinted that he doesn't want to dwell too much on the opposition either. "It doesn't matter what their areas of strength are. It is about what we do and how we play. If we can execute our plans, we should be fine."
'IPL scores won't be possible here'
But the one thing that Rohit wants to assure going into the opener is "proper communication" among the players. The conditions are difficult and Rohit makes it clear "that IPL like scores won't be possible here".
"During the game against Bangladesh, we wanted the batters to communicate and get the message back to the players to follow. There is a lot of experience in the dressing room and I hope that experience comes to the fore," Rohit said, adding that "getting the little details right" will make the difference.
English (US) ·