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Five years ago, Rohit Sharma and Smriti Mandhana discussed India's poor ICC knockouts record in a light-hearted podcast conversation. (BCCI)
For more than a decade since their Champions Trophy win in 2013, no Indian senior team had tasted victory in any ICC event in any format. The semi-finals and beyond had been a constant for the Indian men’s in the period before slip-ups while the women’s team also suffered heart-breaking defeats in summit clash.
Former India captain Rohit Sharma was in attendance on Sunday at the iconic DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai when the Women in Blue broke the agonising title jinx by clinching their maiden World Cup title, beating South Africa by 52 runs. It is a hurdle that Rohit himself hasn’t crossed as player or captain thus far in his career – winning an ODI World Cup – a goal that he had come so close to as captain in the 2023 World Cup before conceding the summit clash to serial winners Australia.
As Rohit oversaw the likes of Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues rejoicing their title triumph, social media had swirled back in time to 2020 when the three Maharashtra superstars had shared a podcast interaction and spent considerable time discussing India’s ICC trophy heartbreaks.
Speaking on the podcast with Jemimah and Mandhana, Rohit would take stock of the defeats suffered by both the men’s and women’s side in the knockout stages up until then. The conversation would go as follows:
Rohit: Hum dono teams ke beech main ek thing common hai ki, ICC knockouts main, hum log semi-finals main aur aap log finals main haar rahe ho (The one commong thing between the men’s and women’s teams are that we lose in the semi-finals of ICC knockouts and you lose in the finals).
Someone called it in 2020 pic.twitter.com/lLVLpNyIxd
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Mandhana would come up with a left-field choice to drop the World Cup jinx, insisting that the sides lose a game or two perhaps in the league stage. For the record, Harmanpreet Kaur’s side lost three games this edition in succesion before pulling things back in time to trump New Zealand, Australia and South Africa en route to the historic title win.
Mandhana: I think it’s important to lose a league match and then win the ICC knockouts (laughs). In the last two World Cups, we’d win the knockout games but lose at either the semis or finals.
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Rohit would recall the men’s 2017 Champios Trophy edition where after wiping out the competition in the league stage, India would suffer a dismal defeat to Pakistan in the final. “Even in the 2019 ODI World Cup, we only lost one league game to England and then lost the semi-final.”
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Runner-Up Finishes (2014-2023)
2014
T20 World Cup
Men's Team
2017
ODI World Cup
Women's Team
2017
Champions Trophy
Men's Team
2020
T20 World Cup
Women's Team
2021
WTC Final
Men's Team
2023
ODI World Cup
Men's Team
The Curse Breaks: Triple Crown 2024-25
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2024
T20 World Cup (Men)
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2025
Champions Trophy (Men)
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2025
ODI World Cup (Women)
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Rohit would concur to Mandhana’s suggestion and cheekily admit that India must suffer gruelling paths on their way to break the trophy drought in different campaigns.
“You are right in a way. Hum ko na mar mar ke jaana hai finals tak.”
“We shouldn’t qualify in the first position,” chimed Mandhana.
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Indeed, India qualified by the skin of their teeth to the knockouts of the World Cup this edition where another loss in the league stage would have proven final for the hosts.
As for Rohit’s reign, India would clinch the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy with undisputable dominance, winning every game.
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