T20 World Cup 2021: Rohit Sharma's World Cup story set for another historic chapter

It was the end of February 2020 and the world hadn’t yet come to terms with the full fury of the Covid virus. Travel in India hadn’t stopped and masks weren’t a feature of our lives just yet. It was India before Corona.

Rohit Sharma could still walk around in his hotel in Bengaluru, posing for photographs with fans and there was a degree of sanity all round. He wouldn’t have to sanitize hands following every handshake, and a hug was the norm and not an exception. In all this normal, however, there was something that wasn’t.

There was a degree of restlessness in Rohit, which was evident when I met him for a conversation close to the end of his rehab at the NCA on 25th February 2020. Rohit had hurt his hamstring in New Zealand and was back in India midway into the tour, forced to miss the two Test matches he was so looking forward to playing.

He was in red hot form in the white ball leg of the tour and just a few months earlier had scored five hundreds in the 2019 World Cup, the highest ever by any batsman in tournament history. To get injured yet again when in such form was terribly unfortunate.

It was the first time we were seeing Rohit since that fateful day in Manchester in July 2019 and it was expected that the conversation would turn to the World Cup at some point.

“The five hundreds really don’t mean much anymore”, Rohit said in a very matter of fact manner.

“Personally it was a great achievement but when you are playing a team sport it is never about personal milestones. When I reached home after the World Cup and everyone was congratulating me for the hundreds, I can very honestly tell you I did not feel any elation. The real prize was in the England dressing room and it was difficult to accept that we had not made the final”, lamented Rohit.

As he was getting miked up for the interview, Rohit was mumbling something to himself. He seemed a little distracted and I was slightly anxious, he smiled and said, “World cup jeetna hai. This is one obsession we have to fulfil.”

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It was a kind of self introspection and admonishment. He was speaking to himself more than he was speaking to me. He is desperate to win a world event and it was as if his legacy as a cricketer was dependant on it.

He has yet another chance starting Sunday. And from the evidence at hand, he looks set. He was in sublime touch against the Australian squad for T20 World Cup and come the big stage, Rohit inevitably pushes himself that much more.

A good start will make it easier for Virat Kohli and the middle order, and could well set up the match for India. In the process, get Rohit closer to his dream. 2007 seems a million years away and Rohit Sharma, the best in the world, needs the T20 World Cup 2021 win to round off a stellar white ball career as a player before taking over as India captain in November.

The initiation into captaincy can’t be better than at the back of winning a World Cup. If you know Rohit well, you know there are serious reasons to back him.