Rohit Sharma: 'I want to win T20 World Cup, it's a dream'

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Bengaluru, April 28: Rohit Sharma was a part of India's first-ever T20 World Cup winning campaign in 2007 in South Africa. And the Mumbai batsman expressed his desire to climb the pinnacle of T20 cricket yet again.

However, this edition of the ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in Australia in October-November, is still in doubt because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

"Winning the T20 World Cup is a dream for all of us. Every time you go out there you want to win every game but the World Cup is the pinnacle of everything. I want to win World Cups, we are not sure when this T20 WC is going to happen but as and when it happens, we will have a fair amount of time to prepare for it. I'm sure the cricket boards around the world are not going to say 'everything is fine we are going to schedule the World Cup'," Rohit told Mumbai Indians website.

Rohit said during the lockdown he is concentrating in improving his fitness.

"Of course, there will be preparation time that will be given to all the countries because everybody is under lockdown. Nobody is playing, or practicing or training besides staying home and doing limited stuff and that is not enough. We need to hit the gym and start training before going on the field."

"Especially for me, I have a lot of work to do because of my injury. I was just around the corner to do my fitness tests until the lockdown happened. First thing for me is to go and give the fitness test, pass it and then hit some balls because it's been a while. The last ball I played was on February 2, which is the day I got injured. I'm looking forward to going out there and playing and doing what I love the most," he said.

India is scheduled to tour Australia this year end for four Test matches and Rohit said it will be a different challenge this time with Steve Smith and David Warner playing for the Kangaroos. When India won the series in 2018-19, both Smith and Warner were absent because of their respective ban from international cricket following the Cape Town ball tampering scandal.

"New Zealand as well, I was quite looking forward to playing in challenging conditions. Unfortunately, the injury happened. I can't wait to go out and test myself in Australia and play the Test matches. It will be a great Test series. I know, Australia in their own backyard with those two guys back will be a different ball game. As a team, us, we are playing our best cricket. We have got our bowlers and batters in the right frame of mind. We are quite looking forward to that series. If it happens, it will be a great series to be a part of," he said.

Rohit has been thrust into the openers' role last year, and the right-hander said he was always prepared for the job.

"There were talks going on even before I opened in Tests, I was told I might open in Tests as well. It was 2 years ago when these talks started, I was preparing myself from there onwards. I was in that mindset that I could open at any given point. At the end of the day, you want an opportunity. Nobody wants to sit out and watch the game. I wanted to be in there. I was ready for any opportunity that was thrown at me. When it finally came, I was ready. It's just that I worked on a few technical aspects," he added.