I am here to play, score and lift the cup: Rohit Sharma

Consider this. In last year, Rohit Sharma has aggregated a mind-boggling 2,063 runs in 34 innings with 10 hundreds. No one else has scored 10 hundreds in the span of one year in one-day international cricket. King of white ball cricket? Without doubt.

This is one of the numerous records Rohit Sharma has shattered when he scored his fifth century of the World Cup against Sri Lanka. With this, he became the only player in the World Cup to score five ODI tons in a single WC. He also drew level with Sachin Tendulkar to become the second player to score six World Cup hundreds.

The Indian opener’s outstanding performance in the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup thus far has been the driving force for India’s march into the semi finals. In the absence of his regular opening partner Shikhar Dhawan, he has taken the responsibility of doing the bulk of scoring for Team India with a single-minded dedication—to lift the world cup on July 14.

The records are not even on his mind, when asked about them after the match, Sharma had a blank look for a moment. “See, I'm not here for records. I'm here to play cricket. I'm here to play and score runs and lift the cup. That is what I'm here for. I'm not looking at all those things at all,” said the man of the match of India’s last league game ahead of the semi final.

He has often termed this WC as a “mission”. Such has been his single minded focus—when asked whether he considered these five 100s as very special in his international career, he said, “No, not yet. If we win the World Cup then probably I would. If not, then I can't, because eventually winning the cup—winning the game is important, no matter how many runs you score or how many wickets you take.”

He revealed that interacting with Yuvraj Singh ahead of the WC really helped him a lot. Singh was part of the Mumbai Indians squad where Rohit is the skipper, but while his team performed well and went on to lift the trophy Sharma was not getting the big runs after the starts. That worried him a bit. “I was not getting big runs. He's like a big brother to me. So, we always talk about the game, about life. So, he said when it matters you will do it. I guess probably he was talking about the World Cup, I think. He was in a similar phase in 2011 before the World Cup, was not getting enough runs. So what he told me was to just be in good space. And that's what he did, that's why he was so successful at that World Cup.”

Dimuth Karunaratne said that his team’s batsmen had lots to learn from Sharma. “He was fearless. And he knows how he is going to get a hundred and he's batting really well. These are the little things he mastered really well. He has a simple plan, he keeps batting and batting. That's what I want the youngsters to learn. He is an an ideal candidate to watch, and the men will learn something from him. He was very hungry for the runs,” said the Lankan skipper.

But, for Sharma, the vice captain of Indian team, it is simply not about his individual performance, but the team performance which is paramount. This was only the second time India won while chasing, the first match being against SA. India has chased thrice in the WC, so far losing once against England in Birmingham. “I think it was important because we want to cover all our bases, tick all the boxes before the semis come. Basically it is a knockout for us, so we wouldn't be able to afford mistakes on that particular day. S, ticking boxes was very, very important. I think we batted well when we were put in. We scored a good amount of runs. Yes, after that South Africa game, this was a second chase we were in. So we wanted to make sure that we did it nice and clean.”

Sharma insisted that starting afresh each match and not thinking of past performances has been the key to his success in this WC. He revealed that this “formula” in itself was very difficult to put to practice with the fans and public all looking to talk about the games each time he was in a public place. “It is very difficult because you're in that fraternity where you meet so many people. They will talk about how well you're batting, how many runs you're getting, how many hundreds you've scored. But, to just keep away from all that is very important. And, I'm trying to do that. Fortunately we have a bunch of guys around us who do not discuss these kind of things too much, about personal milestones. And my family is here to distract me from that. So those are the things that are keeping me away from staying in the past.”