‘It’s not a practice ground, it’s an international game’ – Rohit Sharma keeps his focus on the present

India have just won a T20 World Cup. There is no ODI World Cup for another three years. But so what, says Rohit Sharma. This three-match series against Sri Lanka is still top-flight international cricket.

Perhaps it is tempting to see it primarily as an opportunity to experiment, but India feel it is a series worth winning on its own merits. In fact, so embedded is this competitive spirit for Rohit, that even though he has retired from T20Is and was unavailable for selection for the series that was just played, deep in his own mind, he still thinks he’s a T20I player.

“I dunno’, I feel like I have just been rested from the T20s, like it used to happen in the past,” Rohit said jokingly. “Then there will be a big tournament coming up and we have to get ready for T20 again.”

Sri Lanka’s men’s team isn’t exactly top ODI opposition at present, having placed ninth in last year’s World Cup, and consequently having failed to qualify for next year’s Champions Trophy. But India are still intent on bringing the best of themselves to the series, Rohit said.

“You get asked a lot whether this series is a preparation for the World Cup, or is this a preparation for the Champions Trophy,” he said. “It’s not a practice ground – it’s still an international game. We will keep in our minds what we want to achieve, but this is by no means preparation or practice or anything like that. We want to come here and play good cricket and get something out of the series.

“Of course we want to try everything possible, but when you’re representing the nation the quality of cricket should remain the way it is, and how we’ve played over the last few years. That is more important, rather than thinking about it as a preparation and saying let’s go out and chill in Colombo. We don’t think like that.

“When we play a series and when we play a game, we want to get something out of that. We might tell a bowler: ‘We want something different from you.’ We might tell a batter: ‘This is how we want you to play in the middle overs.’ We want to get something out of the series, but not at the cost of going out there and having no intent or purpose. For me, the standard of Indian cricket is more important.”

Despite their recent successes – runners-up at the ODI World Cup, and one step better in the T20 showpiece – resting on laurels is something the team will avoid as best they can, Rohit said. In modern cricket, the game moves so quickly, you can’t let the opposition steal a march.

“In terms of what we want to do – it’s not just one particular area we’re looking to improve, it’s the overall game. In sports, you can’t just sit happy doing something. You have to keep moving forward, and you have to keep moving up and challenge yourself. There’s always something new to learn when you play a series and when you play a game. Whatever we have done, it was good for that particular time, but time keeps moving forward.”