'Extremely grateful for the year I have had. A World Cup victory would have been nice but as a team, throughout the year, whether red ball or white ball cricket, the team came together really well'
Rohit Sharma feels "extremely grateful" for having a phenomenal 2019 in which he enjoyed and understood his batting with the only regret being not able to win the coveted ODI World Cup in England.
India's white-ball vice-captain scored a record 2442 runs as an opener across formats with 10 hundreds breaking Sri Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya's previous feat.
This was also the year when Rohit rediscovered himself as a Test opener with a fabulous series against South Africa.
"Extremely grateful for the year I have had. A World Cup victory would have been nice but as a team, throughout the year, whether red ball or white ball cricket, the team came together really well," said Rohit, who won another 'Man of the Series' award for his aggregate of 258 runs in three ODIs against the West Indies.
"Personally, I have enjoyed batting, but there's no way I'm stopping. There's an exciting year coming up," Kohli's deputy sounded upbeat about 2020 when India travel to play a challenging Test series against New Zealand first up.
With a record five centuries in the World Cup and a double century on 'Test opening debut', Rohit is in a happy space right now.
"I understand my batting really well. I want to play within my limits, knowing the game-plan you want to execute is very important."
He acknowledged that there are challenges ahead but the team is confident of winning games and staying on top of the table.
"Even in the red ball format, against South Africa, it was going to be challenging. Once we start travelling, we want to win games and stay on top of the table."
Kohli looked back and called 2019 a beautiful year barring that World Cup semi-final loss to New Zealand.
"2019 has been one of the best years for Indian cricket. Apart from the 30 minutes in the World Cup, it's been a great year. We'll keep chasing that ICC trophy. But apart from that, the way we've played has been satisfying."
