India captain Rohit Sharma Monday rued the lack of adequate recognition for a Test series win at home and the critics’ tendency to go after the team with all their might in the event of a defeat.Rohit emphasised the importance of a Test series win regardless of the venue, opposition or conditions, his observation coming after the hosts flattened a trend-setting England team for a 17th consecutive series win at home.
“Home and away, you can differentiate between the two but if you win at home, not a lot is spoken about, it’s like ‘oh no India are supposed to win at home’,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference. (‘Grit, Determination, Resilience’: Virat Kohli Reacts To India Ending Bazball’s Winning Streak With Series Victory In Ranchi)
“If you don’t then I know what happens as well, but yeah, like you said clearly every series win, whichever team you play against, whenever you play, Test series win is a Test series, no matter the conditions or the country you play in,” he added.
India beat England by five wickets on the fourth day of the fourth Test to claim an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match rubber. Basking in the glory of yet another series win at home, Rohit though was not sure if this would make up for the heartbreaking defeat in the ODI World Cup final to Australia after a glorious run.
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Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) February 26, 2024
“It’s gruelling. Playing a five-match series is not easy. That’s what Test cricket is all about. You find your way, keep fighting, whatever contest you are in, with the bat or the ball, you have to do that consistently over a period of may be five to seven weeks. So it’s quite pleasing. But again, I don’t want to compare the World Cup and this series win because both are different formats. But I am quite pleased with this result,” he said.
‘No idea about Bumrah for fifth Test’
With the series in pocket, India may extend pace ace Jasprit Bumrah’s break.
“I have no idea. We have not sat down and discussed,” the India skipper said of his lead pacer who was rested for the fourth Test in line with the team’s workload management.
Praises youngsters
Rohit praised youngsters such as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan and Akash Deep for displaying grit and unflappable temperament at the highest level.”These guys have come in have done the job perfectly, they have taken the responsibility perfectly, and I mean you can take a lot of pride from performances like this with inexperienced players,” Rohit said.
Chasing 192 on a challenging fourth day track, Gill and Jurel completed the task with an unbroken 72-run partnership after Rohit was dismissed for a brisk 55. (UPDATED WTC POINTS TABLE)
“Whatever you say, Test cricket throws different kinds of challenges, different kinds of pressures, but some of these (youngsters), the way they have dealt with the pressures throughout the series, has been superb.”
He added, “Many of these guys are quite young, and you’ll see these guys playing regularly in this format for the coming 5-10 years for sure.”
Jaiswal ‘hunky-dory’
Opener Jaiswal, who is the top scorer of the series so far with 655 runs in eight innings, is “hunky-dory”, according to Rohit. (‘Dhruv Jurel Is The Real Jewel,’ Fans Go Crazy As Youngster Shines In India vs England 4th Test)
“Our job is to make sure that the environment is there for the youngsters to go out there and do the job, and that is what we try and do with a lot of these players,” Rohit explained.
“A lot of these guys are quite grounded, to be honest. Jaiswal is still hunky-dory, but other than that all these guys are quite humble, they come from a humble background, so they obviously take that into their game as well.” Rohit also responded to criticism about the Ranchi pitch which was believed to be a “rank turner”.
“One guy made a hundred, one a 90 and two made 50s. What happens on it, matters. I think whatever we saw of the four days’ play… It’s India’s nature that the ball spins and it remains low. Not just now, but this has been the case for 50 years. It’s not that the batters couldn’t bat, and bowlers couldn’t bowl. In fact, bowlers were very happy to bowl on this wicket. Even for batters, if you applied yourselves, making big runs wasn’t difficult. The way (Joe) Root batted, made a 100. Dhruv Jurel played in such a situation for the first time, second Test and he made runs. More than the runs, see how many balls he played.”
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