Rohit Sharma's words in response to a question from the crowd on his retirement plans were followed by a deafening cheer as the India captain buried talks of retiring from cricket anytime in the near future.
Rohit led India to the T20 World Cup triumph in Barbados on June 29 this year and announced soon after the thrilling seven-run win over South Africa in the final that he will no longer play T20 internationals. It led to speculations if Rohit is thinking about ending his white-ball international career by quitting the ODIs as well.
"I don't look that far ahead," Rohit said in his reply while making a public appearance at a promotional event in the US. "So clearly you will see me playing at least for a while."
The video of Rohit's reply made it to the social media and has been widely circulated.
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After taking India to their second T20 World Cup title, Rohit had said: "This was my last (T20I) game as well."
"No better time to say goodbye to this format. I've loved every moment of this. I started my India career playing this format. This is what I wanted, I wanted to win the Cup. I wanted this badly. Very hard to put in words. It was a very emotional moment for me. I was very desperate for this title in my life. Happy that we eventually crossed the line.".
Rohit bid farewell to the shortest format of cricket as its leading run-scorer, amassing an impressive total of 4231 runs across 159 appearances. His legacy is further bolstered by his record-breaking achievement of scoring the most centuries (five) in T20 internationals.
A few days earlier, BCCI secretary Jay Shah had confirmed that Rohit will lead India in the ICC Champions Trophy scheduled to be held in February-March next year.
