SL vs Ind, 1st ODI – Rohit Sharma remains focused on the moment: ‘It’s not a place to practice’

Perhaps it’s tempting to see it as an opportunity to experiment, but India feel it’s a must-win series in its own right. In fact, this competitive spirit is so ingrained in Rohit, that even though he has retired from T20Is and was not available for selection in the recent series, deep in his mind, he still thinks he is a T20I player.

“I don’t know, I feel like I’ve just had a break from the T20s, like it used to be,” Rohit joked. “Then there will be a big tournament and we will have to prepare again for the T20.”

“You are often asked if this series of matches is for the preparation of the World Cup, or this is for the preparations for the Champions Trophy,” he said. “It’s not a practice game – it’s still an international game. We’ll keep in our minds what we want to achieve, but this is definitely not preparation or practice or anything like that. We want to come here and play good cricket and get something out of the series.

“Yes, we want to try our best, but if you represent the nation, the level of cricket should remain as it is, and the way we have played in the last few years. That is more important, than thinking about it. as a preparation and saying let’s go out and have fun in Colombo. We don’t think so.

“When we play a series and when we play a game, we want to get something out of that. We might say to the bowler: ‘We want something different from you.’ We might say to the batsman: ‘This is the way we want you to play in the middle overs.’ We want to get something out of this series, but not at the cost of going there and without any intention or purpose. For me the quality of Indian cricket is very important.

Despite their recent success – runners-up in the ODI World Cup, and one step better in the T20 showpiece – rest is something the team will avoid as much as possible, Rohit said. In modern cricket, the game moves very fast, you cannot let the opposition steal the march.

“In terms of what we want to do – it’s not just one area we’re looking to improve, it’s the whole game. In sports you can’t just sit back and be happy doing something. You have to keep moving forward, and you have to keep moving forward and challenging yourself. There’s always something new to learn when you play a series and when you play a game, it was good at the time , but time keeps moving forward.