Rohit Sharma has made a shocking revelation. He claims he considered retirement after the heartbreaking loss to Australia in the 2023 ODI World Cup final.

Former India captain Rohit Sharma made a shocking revelation, saying that he had considered retirement after the heartbreaking loss to Australia in the 2023 ODI World Cup final because he felt, 'This game has taken everything away from me.' India had performed brilliantly under Rohit's captaincy in this ODI World Cup played on home soil, winning nine consecutive matches to reach the final, but had to face defeat in this crucial match. In this match, Australian opener Travis Head had scored a century which ultimately proved to be decisive.

"After the ODI World Cup 2023 final, I was completely dejected. I felt like I didn't want to play this game anymore because it had taken everything from me, and I felt like I had nothing left," Rohit said during a Masters Union event. "It took me a while to recover. I kept reminding myself that this is what I truly love. This is what I have, and I can't give it up so easily. Gradually, I recovered. I regained my lost energy and was back on the field."

Rohit said, "Everyone was disappointed by that defeat and we couldn't believe what had happened. It was a very difficult time for me personally because I had given everything I had for that World Cup. I had been preparing for it since I took over the captaincy in 2022, not just two or three months before the World Cup."

Rohit has retired from T20 and Test cricket and was removed from ODI captaincy earlier this year. He currently plays in the 50-over format and aims to remain with the team until the 2027 ODI World Cup.

Rohit said, "My only goal was to win a World Cup, whether it was the T20 World Cup or the ODI World Cup in 2023. So when that didn't happen, I was completely devastated. I had no energy left in my body. It took me a few months to recover and get back on track."

Less than a year after that defeat to Australia in Ahmedabad, India won the 2024 T20 World Cup played in the USA and West Indies under Rohit's captaincy, but the pain of the defeat at the hands of Australia in November 2023 was not easy to recover from.

Rohit said, "I think it's a natural reaction when you put everything into achieving something and then don't get the desired results. That's exactly what happened to me. But I also knew that life doesn't end there."

He said, "It was a huge lesson for me to overcome disappointment and reinvent myself. I knew there was a T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies in 2024, and I had to focus all my attention on that. It's easy to say now, but it was incredibly difficult at the time."

 PC:NDTVINDIA