Rohit Sharma’s retirement from T20 international couldn’t have come at a better time as it turned out to be a dream finish for Sharma after India emerged triumphant at the T20I World Cup 2024. Following India’s title win at the T20I World Cup, Rohit Sharma had bowed out of T20Is. Sharma, however will continue to play ODIs and Test. Since India’s victory at the T20I World Cup, Rohit Sharma has been out of action, having some time off from cricket. Sharma is now gearing up to lead India in the first ODI against Sri Lanka, to be played on August 2nd. 

"Personally, I have had a good time. Good off time from cricket for a bit. You know after winning the World Cup, it was a great feeling to come back home and experience what we experienced in Delhi and Mumbai. But yes now, as you know now we have to move on, cricket moves on. That is what happened after the '23 ODI World Cup as well, there was a lot of disappointment but we had to move on and look forward to this T20 World Cup," Rohit said during the pre-match press conference.

"Now that the T20 world cup is over, we have to look forward, and start thinking about what lies ahead for us as a team. Ya, that is a big tournament coming up and plenty to look forward to. Personally for me as well, I am happy with where I am, how I have prepared myself every time I have come to play a series, this is no different for me. So yep, we have had a good three days here and another day to look forward to and under a new coaching staff which is quite exciting,” he said. 

This will also be the first time that Rohit Sharma will be playing under new head coach Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir took charge after outgoing coach Rahul Dravid’s term came to an end at the end of T20I World Cup 2024. 

"Gautam Gambhir has played a lot of cricket firstly and he has been involved with a franchisee team as well sitting at the top. Like I said, it's obviously going to be different from the previous coaching staff. Every human, every individual is different. Before when Rahul Dravid joined the team , we had Ravi Shastri, so every individual works differently and I'm sure I have known Gautam Gambhir for a long time now, we have played a little bit of cricket together and we have had a lot of chats together in the past. Now that he is here, he has got a very clear mind on what he wants to do with the team which is very good. We don't want to plan too far ahead. We're here to play three games so the goal/ idea is to try to take something back from these three games. Try and learn a lot about how we want to play ODI cricket and what we want to achieve in ODI cricket so it's very exciting times," he added.