'I decided I was not going to watch the World Cup' - Rohit Sharma recalls his bitter experiences of ODI World Cup 2011

Rohit Sharma recalled some bitter-sweet campaigns of India at the ICC Cricket World Cup. Rohit, who missed a spot in the 2011 World Cup will now lead the Men In Blue in the much-awaited tournament which will be played in India from October 5 to November 19. Rohit said that India showcased some excellent performances in the 2003 World Cup.

The 36-year-old was full of praise for legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar, stating he was 'amazing' during that campaign. Furthermore, he stated that India had an unfortunate campaign in the following event which was held in the West Indies back in 2007. Team India were ousted of the mega event after suffering an upset against Bangladesh, which left the fans and players utterly disappointed. 

“In 2003, India played really well up until the finals. You know, Sachin Tendulkar was amazing with the bat, scored so many runs. And then comes the 2007 World Cup where we didn't have a great time, didn't even qualify after the league stage, so that was quite unfortunate,” Rohit told ICC.

He further spoke about India's 2011 World Cup campaign, adding that it was really disappointing after not being selected for the squad. He remembered that he had decided not to watch it initially, but that he had watched every match at home. Notably, India won their first World Cup championship in 22 years under MS Dhoni's leadership after a resounding victory over Sri Lanka in the summit clash.

"2011 was a memorable one for all of us, I remember watching it from home, every single match, every single ball which was being bowled and that was being played. There were two kinds of emotions, one was obviously I was not a part of it, so I was a little disappointed. I decided I was not going to watch the World Cup, but again, the second memory I remember was that India was playing so well, quarter-finals onwards," he added.

We are back home again, so hopefully we can turn things around: Rohit

Rohit Sharma went on to say that he was very pleased to represent India in the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. Notably, the 36-year-old was the leading run-getter in the 2019 edition. He smashed many batting records, amassing 648 runs from nine matches at an average of 81.00.

"And 2015 and 2019, I was a part of it, which felt really good to play the World Cup. We went to the semi-finals, tried everything we could to go to the finals and play well in the finals, but again, a very unfortunate incident where we couldn’t go through to the finals. But hopefully, you know, we are back home again, so hopefully we can turn things around and it's still a long way to go. And you know you can't win the World Cup in one or two days. You got to play well for an entire month, month and a half, and be consistent," the India skipper concluded.