'It was very hard to get back and start moving on': Rohit Sharma's emotional first address since India's World Cup loss

Rohit Sharma has spoken for the first time since India's defeat to Australia in World Cup 2023 final.

For the first time since the night of November 19, when India lost to Australia in the final of the 2023 World Cup, captain Rohit Sharma has spoken about that painful defeat in Ahmedabad. Sure enough, a near teary-eyed Rohit addressed the post-match presentation ceremony, and was consoled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after India's gut-wrenching loss. But beyond those two striking visuals, the India captain went underground.

An emotional Rohit Sharma after India lost to Australia in the World Cup final. (PTI)

Despite being named in India's Test squad for the series in South Africa, Rohit remained quiet for the longest time… until now. The skipper, in a heartfelt video, revealed the range of emotions he and the rest of the teammates experienced as they tried to come to terms with the result. It has been almost a month since India's World Cup heartbreak, and naturally, with time, Rohit has healed as he thanked the public for the unwavering support.

"I had no idea how to come back from this. The first few days, I didn't know what to do. After the final, it was very hard to get back and start moving on, which is why I decided that I need to get my mind out of this. But then, wherever I was, I realised that people were coming up to me and they were appreciating everyone's effort, how well we played. I feel for all of them. They all, along with us, were dreaming of lifting that World Cup, along with us," Rohit said in a video posted on Team Ro's Instagram handle.

"Everywhere we went during this entire campaign, there was so much support from everyone who came to the stadium firstly and people who were watching it from home as well. I want to appreciate what the people have done for us, in that one and half month period. But again, if I think more and more about that I feel quite disappointed that we were not able to go all the way."

While the outcome was crushing for everyone – the players and the 1.5 billion other people of India, Rohit has taken solace from the fact that until the final, Team India were the most dominant unit throughout the tournament. Unbeaten for 10 matches, Virat Kohli emerged as the leading run-scorer and Mohammed Shami the highest wicket-taker. Rohit himself burned up the charts with over 500 runs in the series, with significant contributions in all but two matches.

"I thought we did everything we could from our side. If someone will ask me, what went wrong… because we won ten games, and in that ten games, yes, we made mistakes, but that mistake happens in every game that you play. You cannot have a perfect game. You can have a near-perfect game. But you cannot have a perfect game," Rohit said.

"If I look on the other side of it, I'm really proud of the team as well. Because how we played was simply outstanding. You don't get to perform like that every World Cup. And I am pretty sure I am, at least, how we played up until that final, it would have given people a lot of joy, a lot of pride watching the team play."

Watch the video below:

During their robust World Cup 2023 journey, India played some outstanding cricket, stretching their winning streak against arch-rivals Pakistan and beating their bogey team New Zealand, not once but twice. Despite falling short in the final, the support from the public acted as balm on Rohit's wounds, one that has allowed him to get back on his feet and focus on the next task at hand – a challenging three-Test series against the Proteas starting December 26, followed by a five-match series against England in the Pataudi Trophy next month.

"For me to see, you know, people coming up to me, telling me that they were proud of the team, you know made me feel good. Along with them, I was healing as well. I felt, okay these are the kind of things you want to hear," added Rohit.

"People, when they understand what the player must be going through and when they know these kind of things and not to bring out that frustration, that anger, it means a lot for us, for me definitely it meant a lot because there was no anger, it was just pure love from people that I met and it was wonderful to see that. So it gives you motivation to get back and start working again and look for another ultimate prize."

There is speculation about Rohit's potential involvement and return as captain for the T20 World Cup 2024, but irrespective of whether he comes back to India's T20I set-up, Rohit will unfortunately finish his career without a 50-over World Cup as by the next edition, he would have turned 40 and the likelihood of him continuing until then seems slim. Not winning the World Cup will go down as a missed opportunity for one of India's greatest white-ball batters of all time and Rohit openly acknowledges the disappointment that accompanies it.

"I've always grown up watching the 50-over World Cup. To me that was the ultimate prize, the 50-over World Cup. We've worked all these years, for that World Cup. And it is disappointing, right? If you don't get through it, don't get what you want, what you've been looking for all this while, what you were dreaming of. You get disappointed. You get frustrated as well at times," he said.