Ahead of the highly anticipated India vs South Africa Test series starting tomorrow (26 December 2023), Team India captain Rohit Sharma addressed the media for the first time since the World Cup 2023 final loss.

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During the press conference, Rohit opens up on his heartbreaking World Cup final loss and reveals how he overcame it. The Indian skipper said that he is surrounded by so many cricket matches these days, that one has to find the strength.

"The way we played, you expect to go an inch further. Unfortunately, we couldn't do it. That was the hard part. You saw how we managed to play the 10 games. We didn't do certain things well in the final and that's why we lost. It is hard but there's so much happening in life, so much cricket, you've got to find the strength. It took me time to come out but you've got to move on," he said.

"We got a lot of encouragement from the outside world and that motivated me personally to get up," the Indian skipper further said.

Team India coach Rahul Dravid also said that players have already moved on from the World Cup final loss and are focusing on what is coming next, especially winning the Test series in South Africa.

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma, alongside Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah are set to make their first appearance in tomorrow's Test series after the conclusion of ODI World Cup 2023.

The Test series holds a lot of significance for the Rohit Sharma-led side as they have never won a red-ball series in South Africa.

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, KS Bharat, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna 

South Africa: Temba Bavuma (c), Tony de Zorzi, Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Marco Jansen, Wiaan Mulder, David Bedingham, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne, Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada

The South Africa tour consists of ODI, T20I, and Test series. So far, the ODI and T20I series have been concluded. 

The T20I series between India and South Africa ended up being tied (1-1). Whereas in the ODI series, Team India under KL Rahul’s guidance won the series against the Proteas by 2-1.