Having replaced Virat Kohli as India’s captain in limited-over internationals, Rohit Sharma spoke on his new responsibility for the first time in an interview with the website of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Rohit, who also replaced the out-of-form Ajinkya Rahane as Test vice-captain, said he is not bothered by “talks that happen outside” and is focussed on his job. “When you are playing cricket for India, it’s gonna be always high pressure. The pressure is always gonna be there; a lot of people talking about the positives and negatives but for me personally as a cricketer, not as a captain as a cricketer, for me it’s important to focus on my job and not to focus on what people are talking about because you can’t control that,” Rohit said in a video posted by the BCCI on Twitter.

SPECIAL – @ImRo45‘s first interview after being named #TeamIndia‘s white-ball captain coming up on https://t.co/Z3MPyesSeZ.

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— BCCI (@BCCI) December 12, 2021

“I have said million times about this and I will keep saying that and that is what the message is to the team as well; like, even the team understands that when we are playing a high-profile tournament, there will be a lot of talks,” he added.

“It’s just important for us to focus on what we have in hand, which is to go and win games, play the way you are known to play. I think those talks that happen outside are immaterial. For us, it’s important what we think of each other and that is more important.

“What I think of x, y, z is important as you want to create a strong bond between the players and that is what will help us in achieving the goal we want. Rahul (Dravid) bhai is obviously gonna help us in doing that so we look forward to that.”

Rohit’s first stint as a full-time ODI skipper will be the next month’s ODI series against South Africa.

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Under Rohit’s captaincy, India have played 10 ODI matches and won eight of them.

Rohit also led India in the triumphant 2018 Asia Cup campaign.