Rohit Sharma rushed with the customary handshakes and went straight to the long staircase leading to the Indian dressing room. The teary-eyed Indian skipper had his head down and looked heartbroken. On a night where emotions ran high, India players, both on the field and in the dressing room, and support staff were hurting after falling short in what was a “really good campaign”.
KL Rahul was down on his knees, inconsolable Mohammed Siraj got a long hug from Jasprit Bumrah, there’s a picture of Anushka Sharma hugging Kohli going viral on social media and various clips of Sachin Tendulkar consoling each member of the Indian cricket team before the presentation ceremony. Every visual has heartbreak written all over it and it was “tough” for coach Rahul Dravid to see “lot of emotions in that dressing room”.
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“There was a lot of emotions in that dressing room. It was tough to see as a coach, because I know how hard these guys have worked, what they’ve put in, the sacrifices they’ve made. So, it’s tough. I mean, it’s tough to see that as a coach, because you get to know these boys personally. You get to see the effort they put in, the hard work that we’ve put in over the last month, the kind of cricket we’ve played,” says Dravid at the post-match press conference.
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It looked tough for Dravid too. Addressing the media not long after India lost the final, the coach managed to maintain his composure but there were moments where there was a shake in his voice and lump in his throat.
“But yeah, but that’s sport. That happens. It can happen. And the better team won on the day. And I’m sure that the sun will come up tomorrow morning. We’ll learn from it. We’ll reflect. And we’ll move on, as will everyone else. I mean, that’s what you do as sportsmen. You have some great highs in sport, and you have some lows in sport. And you keep moving on. You don’t stop. Because if you don’t put yourself on the line, you don’t put yourself in games like these, you don’t experience the great highs. And neither do you experience the great lows. And if you don’t do that, you don’t learn,” adds Dravid.
Put into bat, India had another flying start courtesy captain Rohit, who has stuck to the template since start of the tournament, but they didn’t get a big partnership going and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. The middle-overs was the period where Australia applied the choke and literally gave nothing away.
”We just lost wickets just when we felt that we built a partnership and we can start going. We lost a wicket, we lost Virat [Kohli], then we lost Jaddu [Jadeja] and then we lost [KL] Rahul. So, we just kept losing wickets at critical intervals and probably felt that we were about 40 runs short. I mean, I know in the end it looked like they would have chased even 40 runs more. But if we had got to 280, 290, and they were 60 for 3, then it might have been a very different game,” says Dravid.
India ended on the wrong side in the final but they showcased clinical performances right through the tournament. From role clarity to a very healthy atmosphere in the change room, they looked like a well-oiled machinery rolling over oppositions for fun. And in the driver’s seat was captain Rohit who has “been an exceptional leader”.
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“I think he’s been an exceptional leader. You know, Rohit’s really led this team fantastically well. I just think he’s given so much of his time and energy in the dressing room to the boys. He’s always been available for any of our conversations, any of our meetings. Sometimes there’s been a lot of planning, a lot of strategy that goes in. He’s always committed to those things. He’s given a lot of his personal time, energy into this campaign. And his batting as well, I thought it was fantastic, the way he set the tone for us. We knew that we wanted to play a certain way. We wanted to play a positive attacking brand of cricket. And he was very committed to doing that. And he wanted to lead by example,” says Dravid.
It would have been a long and dark night for Rohit Sharma and his exceptional team. They were the team to beat in this tournament and one bad day at the office extended their wait for a ICC trophy. This will take time to sink in as this bunch certainly gave their all.
“The result has not gone our way. We were not good enough today. We tried everything but it wasn’t supposed to be, ” said Rohit Sharma as he summed up the day at the post-match presentation.
