Rohit Sharma hopes to win a world title for India

India’s new captain Rohit Sharma hopes to win a world title for India, an achievement that eluded his sacked predecessor Virat Kohli.

During Kohli’s five-year tenure India rose in ODI, T20 and Test rankings but missed out on securing a single international tournament.

India last won the Champions Trophy in 2013, but failed to make the semi-finals in this year’s T20 World Cup and got knocked out in the last four of the 2019 ODI showpiece event. India also lost the inaugural World Test Championship final to New Zealand in June.

“The last ICC trophy we won was in 2013, since then we haven’t won but I don’t think we did anything wrong after that,” Rohit said in a video on the Board of Control for Cricket on Sunday. “We played as a team, we performed as a team, it’s just that we couldn’t get that extra inch that we look forward to,”

“There is a lot of World Cup coming up. India will definitely be eyeing to do well in all those World Cups,” he added.

Kohli stepped down as captain of India’s ODI side last week, a month after he resigned as the T20 captain following the T20 World Cup.

But remains Test captain and will lead India in three Tests in South Africa starting on 26 December.

Rohit praised Kohli for his leadership since he took over the ODI captaincy from M.S. Dhoni in 2017.

“He has put the team in a position where there is no looking back. Those five years that he has led the team, he led from the front every time we stepped onto the park,” Rohit said. “There was clear grit, determination to win every game. That was the message to the entire squad and we had a great time playing under him.”

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly defended Kohli, saying the management wanted one white-ball leader.

“I personally requested him (Kohli) not to give up the T20I captaincy,” Ganguly told News 18. “Obviously, he felt the workload. Which is fine, he has been a great cricketer, he has been very intense with his cricket. He has captained for a long period of time and these things happen.

“Also, they wanted only one white-ball captain. And that’s why this decision.”