ICC Champions Trophy: Rohit sounds warning, says no room to slip up

There are no prizes for guessing that the Big Two’s future in international cricket will make for one of the biggest sub-plots in India’s campaign in this edition of the ICC Champions Trophy. While it was a momentous occasion for Pakistan to host the first match of a major ICC tournament on their soil after 30 years on Wednesday, the event will truly begin for Indian fans when they open against a spunky Bangladesh at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday.

The importance of being Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, especially in a big ICC 50-over tournament, tells a story by itself. In the 2023 ICC World Cup in India where India ended with the heartbreak of losing the final to Australia, Kohli emerged as player of the tournament with a whopping 765 runs while Rohit — leading the charge without bothering about landmarks — still raked up 597 runs to be among the top-scorers of the tournament.

While speculation continues over their future across formats, the weight of their overall achievements in the 50-over game precedes them. When it comes to Kohli, he is only 37 runs short of 14,000 ODI runs, a feat which is likely to happen this week and make him the second highest rungetter in the history of this format after Sachin Tendulkar’s gargantuan 18,426 runs. Rohit, meanwhile, is just 12 runs short of 11,000 runs apart from being the only batter to hit three double centuries in this format.

For now, Rohit would like to trade his personal milestones for team glory, as he knows it would be his last opportunity as a captain to hold aloft the silverware for a major ICC 50-over crown before he signs off. The casual demeanour which marks his press conferences was replaced by an earnestness as the Indian captain pointed out the pitfalls of the format of the Champions Trophy.

‘’Unlike the 50-overs World Cup where you get 10 matches and can recover even if you slip in single game or two, this tournament does not leave that margin of error. It’s important that we do things right as a group as it’s a very important tournament for us,’’ the 'Hitman' told a crowded press conference.

The three-match ODI series against England, which finished only a few days back, saw India completing a whitewash. The timing of the series couldn’t have been any better for Rohit and his men as they didn’t play any ODIs at all after being humbled by the under-rated Sri Lankans last August.

‘’We tried to tick a few boxes during that series and managed to restrict their batting line-up to sub-par scores,’’ observed Rohit while the series also saw his batters like vice-captain Subhman Gill and Shreyas Iyer hit a welcome level of consistency. Personally, what must have pleased Rohit was ending a long drought of centuries in style in Cuttack and Kohli also chipping in with a half-century in helpful conditions in Ahmedabad.

‘’Yes, the key to success has been the top four batters getting those runs,’’ Rohit said, reserving special praise for his new deputy Gill who scored a century, missed one narrowly and a fifty. ‘’See, Gill is a very, very classy player. His numbers over the last three to four years have been crazy and there is a reason why he has been elevated – there is no need to mix formats while assessing a player’s form,’’ he said.

 The ticklish question of India crowding a 15-member squad with five spinners came up again – but Rohit fielded it with customary sense of humour. ‘’There only two spinners, the rest are allrounders. They can bat and bowl. We play to our strengths. The three allrounders give a different dimension to the squad, they add a lot to the squad. We wanted to have players with two skills rather than one,” he added with a smile.

Catch the match

 ICC Champions Trophy

 India vs Bangladesh

 Venue: Dubai International Stadium

  Start: 1 pm UAE (2.30 pm IST)