I Was In South Africa, Had No One To Talk To About This: Rohit Sharma On 2011 World Cup Snub

Team India skipper Rohit Sharma opened up on his 2011 World Cup snub from the Indian team and how he overcame the massive blow of his career.

Although Rohit was part of MS Dhoni’s 2007 World T20 title campaign, the Mumbai player found it difficult to make the cut in the 15-member squad for the ICC World Cup 2011, which India jointly hosted with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

India beat Sri Lanka in the 2011 World Cup final

India lifted the marquee trophy after a 28-year hiatus under MS Dhoni’s leadership as they defeated fellow hosts, Sri Lanka, in the final by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 2, 2011.

I was just in my room sitting and thinking about what went wrong: Rohit Sharma on 2011 World Cup snub

In the retrospect of the World Cup snub, Rohit admitted it was tough for him to digest the news when he was in South Africa (for the ODI series) and was left in disarray. The 34-year-old revealed on how he pushed himself after the disappointment.

“It is very hard. Honestly, it’s not easy because World Cup is something that you always dream of playing and being part of the World Cup. And plus, contributing for the team’s success. I still remember I was in South Africa at that point and we were playing the series when we got the news. I had no one to talk to about this.

At that point, I was just in my room sitting and thinking about what went wrong and what I could have done better and all of that,” Rohit told Indian women’s team batter, Jemimah Rodrigues, in a video posted by Dream 11 on their YouTube channel.

“But I think, it’s important that at that stage I was, we’re talking about like tens years from now, and I was only 23 or 24 at that point. So I knew that there’s a lot of cricket left in me and it’s not the end of the world and it was more important for me to comeback from this. What has happened has happened, there is nothing you can change about it,” Rohit added. 

Rodrigues was dropped from India’s squad for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 this year in New Zealand. Rohit was part of India’s World Cup squad in 2015 (Australia and New Zealand) and 2019 (England and Wales).

Rohit took over India’s captaincy reins from Virat Kohli in all formats in February after being appointed as the national team’s new Test skipper.

Also Read: I Am Confident Rohit Sharma Will Take Us To A World Cup Win – Yuzvendra Chahal