‘I understand that I cannot please everyone’ – Rohit Sharma on handling captaincy ahead of ODI World Cup 2023

India’s all-format Captain Rohit Sharma recently got candid with the Indian Express while talking about his absence from social media ahead of the ODI World Cup 2023. He labelled social media as a distraction and said he likes to stay away from it because people tend to discuss every single thing on the globally available networking platforms. 

Sharma also talked about the efforts he makes on the field to make the coaches, selectors and the captain of the team (before he became the captain) constantly have the urge to make him play and believe that the team needs him. Rohit also discusses that he never wanted the captains to ignore them at any cost, and constantly perform well for the team. 

Rohit Sharma on staying away from social media to avoid distractions

“I don’t run people’s lives, if people love it, they love it. Social media these days is fake. I saw someone on the team bus in the morning saying, ki dekha ki nahi, isne yeh bola, usne yeh bola. (Saw this? He said this, that). They discuss it,” discussed Rohit Sharma. 

“You see my phone, you can check it, I don’t have Twitter or Instagram on my phone for the past nine months. If we have to do any commercial post, my wife handles it. These are distractions, they all are on the phone the whole day. It’s a waste of time and energy. So I have decided not to have it on my phone because if it’s there, I will watch it”, said Rohit Sharma while explaining his absence from social media. 

Rohit Sharma admitted that after becoming the captain he has realized that he cannot be everyone’s favourite, he said, “It’s the time we live in. The new generation is more on reel, Instagram, different social media; they all are into it. Rather than sulking in my room, I have to make sure that my captain, coach, selectors think that we need this guy; he will do something for the team. So I started to think on those lines. Many times, the reasons are something different. The team wants to go with some different combination and probably you don’t fit in that combination. I want to do things to ensure the captain should not ignore me … Being the captain now, I understand that I cannot please everyone.”