New Delhi: Ahead of India's first match of the T20 World Cup 2024, skipper Rohit Sharma said it is always exciting for him to take part in an ICC tournament since it brings new challenges.
India will start their voyage in the T20 World Cup 2024 against Ireland at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Wednesday.
In a recent video shared on the official social media handle of ICC, Rohit said that he has played all the T20 World Cups and has enjoyed every bit of it.
"When you come to an ICC tournament, it is always exciting and brings a lot of new challenges. For me, nothing changes from all the World Cups that I've played. I always wanted to win. Having played all the T20 World Cups, I've enjoyed every bit of it," Rohit said.
The India skipper also recalled the time when a bowl-out took place against Pakistan in the 2007 T20 World Cup. He added that the bowl-out brought a lot of excitement since it was the first time such a thing was taking place.
"I think the first thing that comes to my mind is the bowlout that we had against Pakistan. I think that was the first ever bowl out. I still remember we used to train for bowl outs, which was quite exciting. Everyone used to participate. I never thought it will reach to this level because when it started obviously it was a very unknown factor to the world but I can sit here now and definitely say that it has brought a lot of excitement," he added.
In the T20 World Cup 2024, India will be aiming to end their ICC trophy drought, having last won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. Since then, India has reached the 50-over World Cup final in 2023, semifinal in 2015 and 2019, the title clash of the ICC World Test Championship in 2021 and 2023, T20 WC final in 2014, semifinals in 2016 and 2022 but failed to secure a big ICC trophy.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Hardik Pandya (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj
Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan.
—ANI