Rohit Sharma will play his first game as India’s full-time limited overs skipper when India take on West Indies in the first ODI of the three-match series at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad om Sunday. Ahead of the game, Sharma said that the team needs role clarity keeping the 2023 ODI World Cup in mind.

Sharma, who is the most successful IPL captain, in his first interaction as full-time ODI skipper, said that he would like to pick the team from where his predecessor Virat Kohli left. 

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“It is always important that everyone comes together and plays that role that has been given to them. What is important for us, moving forward is the role clarity of certain individuals in the squad,” Rohit said at a virtual press conference ahead of the first ODI against West Indies.

He further stressed on the need of interacting on an individual level with the players. 

“I think, if we can, you know, put that in place and talk to the individual about it, I think, we can get what we want from different individuals at different points in time of need,” he added.

India come off a 3-0 away loss against South Africa. Sharma still believes that there not a lot that the team needs to change.

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“We just need to adapt to different situations of the game that has been presented in front of us. We have played good ODI cricket over the course of a few years, more than few years actually. So suddenly a series defeat doesn’t mean that there is panic that we need to create,” he added.

Under Virat Kohli’s leadership, India’s success rate was more than 70%. However, the team failed to win any major ICC trophies. 

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“Have to take it forward from where Virat left. I mean, when Virat was captaining, I was the vice-captain, so we pretty much went about the team in similar fashion. I just have to take it from where he (Virat) left,” Rohit said.

Talking about Kuldeep Yadav, who last played an ODI in 2021, and Yuzvendra Chahal’s partnership, Sharma said, “It is certainly on my mind to get them back together, Kuldeep specially, he hasn’t played since IPL, he was part of IPL team but then he got injured, and then he was out since then. He hasn’t played a lot of games after that, so we want to get him in slowly. We just do not want him to rush into things and it cannot do good for either the team and also for him.”