New Delhi, Dec 12 (Agency) After being appointed as India’s new white-ball captain, Rohit Sharma on Saturday stated that pressure is always there whenever he is playing for the country. He, however, stressed that as a cricketer it is important for him to focus on his job. The 34-year-old took over the ODI captaincy from his teammate Virat Kohli on December 8. Last month, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had named the India opener as the T20I skipper after Kohli stepped down from the role in the shortest format. The All-India Senior Selection Committee also appointed Rohit as the new vice-captain of the Kohli-led Test squad, which will tour South Africa for a bi-lateral series. Earlier Ajinkya Rahane was the deputy skipper in the longest format. “When you’re playing cricket for India, it’s always going to be high pressure. Pressure is always going to be there.
There’ll be lot of people talking about it – positive (and) negative,” Rohit said in a video tweeted by the BCCI. “But for me personally as a cricketer, not as a captain, as a cricketer for me it’s important to focus on my job. Not to focus on what people are talking about because you can’t control that.” The Mumbai-based noted that whenever there is a high profile tournament there will be lots of outside noise. The sacking of Kohli from ODI captaincy wasn’t taken well by his fans on social media. The Twitter users came in support of Kohli and bashed the Indian cricket board. There was no official statement from the BCCI on taking away ODI captaincy from Kohli. Earlier in September, Kohli announced that he would relinquish T20 leadership role following the T20 World Cup 2021. India were eliminated in the group stage of the premier event held in the UAE.
“I’ve said it million times about this and I’ll keep saying that and that is what the message is to the team as well like even the team understands that when we’re playing a high profile tournament there’ll be lot of talks,” Rohit said. “But it’s important for us to focus on what we have in our hand which is to go and win games. Play the way you’re known to play. I think those talks that happens out are immaterial. “For us it’s important what we think of each other. That is more important. What I think of xyz that is important. We want to create a strong bond between the players and that is what will help us in achieving the goal we want to.” Rohit added that he has full faith in India head coach Rahul Dravid to help the team win the games for the country. “Rahul bhai, obviously, is going to help us doing that. We look forward to that,” Rohit signed off.