In his first public speech after losing the ODI captaincy, Rohit Sharma spoke about India winning the Champions Trophy in 2025. However, he made no mention of head coach Gautam Gambhir. Instead, he praised the processes instituted under Rahul Dravid's tenure.
Rohit Sharma was honored at the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards in Mumbai. He received the award from Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar.
Host Mayanti Langer spoke to the former Team India captain and discussed the “change of the seas” in Indian cricket under Rohit Sharma's captaincy. She said every player in the Champions Trophy 2025 team was a “match winner”.
“Look. I love that team. I loved playing with them, and it's a journey that we've all been on for years. It's not about putting in one or two years of work. It was about putting in work for years,” Rohit said while talking about his team.
“We had been so close to winning that trophy many times. But we couldn't just get over the line. Then everyone decided we had to do something different,” he added.
“All the guys that took part in that competition got into the thought process of how we can win games and how we can challenge ourselves and not be complacent and not take anything for granted,” he said of the Champions Trophy 2025 team.
“Those were the qualities we tried to instill. We followed a simple method of doing that repeatedly. Everyone enjoyed that process. Once we crossed the line, when we won the first match, we completely put that match aside and then started focusing on the next one,” said India's T20 World Cup captain.
“That was really good from the team and that helped me and Rahul (Dravid) bhai when we were planning for the T20 World Cup (2024) and then on to the Champions Trophy. We just executed well,” Rohit Sharma said.
Rohit Sharma's omission of Gautam Gambhir, despite discussing the 2025 Champions Trophy at length, is significant because Gambhir, and not Dravid, was the head coach of Team India at the time. However, Sharma attributed the win to the 'process' initiated by Rahul Dravid.
“He always shows gratitude towards Rahul Dravid… I wish Gambhir had been more professional and honest with him… he should have been captain,” said an Indian cricket fan.
Rohit Sharma on tour in Australia
Even after the Champions Trophy comments, the conversation continued. Rohit Sharma was asked about the upcoming tour of Australia. The change of captaincy was not mentioned. Then Rohit Sharma said he would like to go to Australia.
“It's a very challenging country to play cricket in. The people there love the game too. Certainly Australia will offer a different challenge… But yes, having been there several times now, I understand what to expect.
“Hopefully we can go there and do what an Indian team is supposed to do: try to win games, try to get the result in our favor and try to do well there,” he concluded.
Again, there was no mention whatsoever of Gautam Gambhir.
