Melbourne: India skipper Rohit Sharma, who was part of the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup, on said that shortest format of the game has “evolved” so much over the years.
Rohit entered the 2007 event in South Africa as a 20-year-old, but still managed to have a strong impact as he hit a fine half-century against the tournament hosts in his side’s last group match and then backed up that effort with an unbeaten 30 coming into bat at number six in the final against arch-rival Pakistan in Johannesburg.
“When I was picked for that World Cup I did not go with any expectations about myself,” Rohit said on Saturday in a pre-tournament press conference alongside the other 15 captains, who are in Australia for T20 World Cup.
“I just wanted to enjoy the tournament and play the tournament as it was my first ever World Cup. I had no understanding of what it was like to be part of a World Cup and how big it was going to be until we actually won the World Cup.
“It has been a long journey and the game has evolved so much. You can literally see how it is played now compared to what it was like in 2007. 140 or 150 was a good score back then and now people try and get that score in 14 or 15 overs,” Rohit said.
The four-week event in Australia is the eighth rendition of the T20 World Cup and will also be the eighth time Rohit will feature in the 20-over showcase having played in each tournament thus far.
Rohit is also one of just four players in Australia that played at the inaugural event in 2007, with Zimbabwe all-rounder Sean Williams, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan and India team-mate Dinesh Karthik making up an impressive quartet that can now definitely be considered T20 World Cup veterans.
“Teams have started to take a lot of risk without worrying about the result, which I think is a good way to play this kind of format. It is something that our team is also trying to do because this is the kind of format where there is risk, but there’s literally high rewards as well. You’ve got to be brave enough to take those risks, and certainly, we’ll be prepared to do that as well.” he added.
India will be in action in their final warm-up game against Australia at The Gabba in Brisbane on Monday, before they fly to Melbourne to take on Pakistan in their T20 World Cup opener at the MCG on October 23.
UNI
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