Is losing Test series in South Africa same as losing World Cup? Indian captain Rohit Sharma gives blunt response

Team India lost WTC final and WC final under Rohit Sharma’s leadership this year.

India’s long wait for a test series win in South Africa is extended for some more time. South Africa crushed the Indian dream of a test series win in South Africa by defeating the visitors in the first of the two-match test series by an innings at 32 runs at Supersport Park in Centurion. It was a poor batting display from the star-studded Indian batting lineup and they failed to apply themselves on bouncy South African pitches once again. The next test will be played at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town.

In the year 2023, India failed to win the ICC World Test Championship final in June and then ICC Cricket World Cup final in November and now have missed a golden opportunity to win their final frontier, a test series win in South Africa. While the Indian fans count the disappointments they had in the calendar year 2023, Indian captain Rohit Sharma has stated that he will not be comparing the 2-3 poor results they had in the last 6 months.

‘World Cup is World Cup,’ says Rohit Sharma

While responding to a question on consecutive losses in key games during a post-match press-conference, Indian captain Rohit Sharma said, “I can’t compare the World Cup to the Test series. Obviously, winning the Test series here would be awesome, and it is going to be an extraordinary feat for us. But the World Cup is the World Cup. In my books, both are separate.” 

According to Rohit Sharma, the weightage of both losses are different and they all are disappointments for the team. He added, “A loss is a loss. Losses are quite disappointing, whether it is a World Cup loss or a loss like that (against South Africa). But the weightage both tournaments have is quite different. So, it is hard for me to compare World Cup loss to this.”

Team India will have an opportunity to draw the two-match test series in Cape Town. Rohit Sharma had a dismal batting performance in both innings in Centurion and accumulated only 5 runs in the match, bagging a duck in the second innings. Kagiso Rabada got him out in both innings of the Boxing Day test. Apart from KL Rahul, no other Indian batsman could go on to play a big knock in the first test.

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