The wait is almost over as India will be squaring off against Pakistan in a high-voltage clash in the Super 12 stage of the ongoing T20 World Cup on Sunday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
It would be interesting to see which team comes up on top. Ahead of the fixture, one question on the minds of everyone is whether the rain will play spoilsport. Rain showered heavily on Friday evening in Melbourne, and more showers are also expected on Sunday.
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Ahead of the crucial encounter, India captain Rohit Sharma addressed a press conference on Saturday where he spoke about the team's preparations and what the playing XI can look like.
"In hindsight, if you look at it, toss becomes a little important when there is a rain threat. But again, I have been hearing about the Melbourne weather for a while now; it keeps changing. You do not know what will happen tomorrow or what is in our control; we will try to look after that. We need to come here thinking it will be a 40-over game if the situation demands; if it is a shorter game, we will be ready for it. The players know how to manage themselves if the game is reduced, ten over reach or five over each. Luckily, we played a game in India where it was an 8-over game," said Rohit.
India had not won an ICC title since 2013, when MS Dhoni led the team to victory in the Champions Trophy. Following that, the team reached the 2015 50-over World Cup semi-finals, the 2016 T20 World Cup, the 2017 Champions Trophy final, and the 2019 50-over World Cup semi-finals.
"I do not want to say pressure, but it is challenging for us to come out on top in ICC tournaments. Yes, there has not been the performance that we would like to show in ICC tournaments or huge games, but I believe the opportunity always comes, and we have the opportunity now to come here and do well, so I think we will have to focus on certain things to get that right."
"Yes, it is a challenge not to win the ICC trophy for nine years, if I am not wrong. The last one we won was in 2013. It has been a challenge with a team like us, there are a lot of expectations, and we are certainly a little disappointed with that. This tournament gives us that chance to change it and do well. We certainly know we must play our best cricket to do well here. We need to take it one game at a time and then go ahead," he added.
Rohit responded when asked how he has addressed issues since last year's World Cup: "The most important thing was to give players freedom, giving them the security to do well in challenging situations. We focused on how to give players security without worrying about results. These small things matter a lot; in this last one year, us not focused on results; we wanted to focus on small things. We were thinking about how we could play fearlessly. We were talking about it in our dressing room."
Rohit said about playing Pakistan: "I do not want to use this word pressure, but it is constant. It is not going to change ever. I would like to take this as a challenge. This Pakistani team is a very challenging team; all the Pakistan teams I have played against from 2007 to 2022 have been good teams. It is just that, I believe, on that particular day, kind of thing. If you are good enough, you will beat any opposition on that particular day. And on the day if you are good, you will take the win and go home. Pakistan was good in the last World Cup; they beat us."
"They were good in Asia Cup; we were good too. We won the first game, and they won the second one. Unfortunately, we were out of the Asia Cup; we did not win the important games. Look, they have been playing good cricket, and you know their brand of cricket. Luckily, we got to play them twice in the Asia Cup; otherwise, we did not play them at all. So it is pretty hard to gauge what sort of mindset they come in with. So, it is important to understand what is their strength and weakness. In a World Cup, I do not think you cannot underestimate any team," he added.