2011 was the last time India won the 50-overs World Cup. Virat Kohli was just into his third year in international cricket, while Rohit Sharma failed to make the squad due to poor form and fitness. This was long before Kohli went on to become a legend, and Rohit’s career witnessed a second wind as an opener. Once both became forces to reckon with, Ro-Ko, as the world began to know them, did almost everything together, except win ICC tournaments. The 2015 World Cup in Australia, the 2016 World T20 in India, the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup in England all ended in heartbreak for India, with Kohli and Rohit’s dreams falling short of coming true.
The curse finally lifted in 2024, when India broke the jinx and lifted the T20 World Cup. As Rohit and Kohli announced their T20I retirements on the same night, and then called time on their Test careers barely a week apart the following year, the goal was clear: win the only ICC tournament they haven’t won together, and the one that matters most, the 50-overs World Cup. In 2023, they came agonisingly close. It was a fairytale waiting to be completed before Australia crushed it. But four years later, there’s another chance, and their last one at that. If they can win it, nothing else would come close.
Kohli fiercely driven
Kohli appears to be a certainty for next year’s World Cup in South Africa unless something goes horribly wrong. He may be playing just one international format, but that takes nothing away from his drive to be at his best when the World Cup comes around. Having confirmed that this will be his last World Cup, Kohli, 38, is fiercely driven to lift the silverware he won 15 years ago in Mumbai.
“The intensity of a 50-over World Cup is greater than anything. Because now, it’s about 10 games at a T20 level of intensity. But you are playing 2.5 T20 games in one day. And to maintain that intensity for 10 games in a big tournament and World Cup is a big deal. Also now, it’s in foreign conditions. It takes a lot out of you. For me, it’s the last World Cup I’m going to play for India. And that is my motivation. Like, you know, to leave everything out there. And of course, the goal is absolutely to win the World Cup. And whatever it takes, I’m absolutely ready,” Kohli said on JioHotstar and Star Sports Network ahead of the ODI series between India and West Indies starting Sunday.
Rohit’s ‘unfinished business’
Rohit, meanwhile, doesn’t know what it feels like to be an ODI World Cup winner. He has always prioritised it and called it the only World Cup that matters. It’s for that elusive trophy that, at 38, Rohit refuses to slow down. Having lost a significant amount of weight, Rohit continues to score runs despite whatever is written about him. On November 19 in Ahmedabad, perhaps no one was more heartbroken than Rohit, and if he makes the trip to South Africa next year, he will want to settle his unfinished business once and for all.
“The thought will never cross my mind that the business I had is finished. As long asyou’re playing, there is always something to look forward to. And I’m looking forward to the World Cup, looking at what lies ahead for me. When the World Cup is played, when we play an ICC tournament, it has its own unique challenge, because you face different opponents, you play at different venues. So, you have to prepare differently, think in a different way and that is the challenge,” Rohit said on the same platform.
