Rohit Sharma admitted that they didn’t bat well in the first innings of the Pune Test and that a deficit of over 100 on a tricky pitch ultimately proved to be too huge for them to turn around. However, India slipped to their first Test series loss at home in 12 years on Saturday (October 26) with another failure in this match fuelling talks of a decline in batting standards against spin as well.
“We didn’t bat well in the first innings. We got only 150 [156] and the batters do understand that they failed to respond to that pressure, that challenge of playing on whatever pitch,” Rohit said after the 113-run loss in Pune. “The pitch was not bad at all. We just didn’t play well enough to get closer to that first inning score of theirs. And then obviously with 100 [103] runs behind, we always knew that it is going to be challenging whatever score we have to get. Because as the game went on, the pitch started behaving slightly differently.”
“And then, yeah, 350 to get, we knew that the mindset that we had was wanting to get those runs. We had a great partnership with [Yashasvi] Jaiswal and [Shubman] Gill in the middle. But again, then we lost wickets, quickly after that. And then obviously we knew that the game was slipping out of our hands. And we failed to respond to that pressure,” he again added.
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Sharing on redirecting the pressure applied by New Zealand, Rohit Sharma shared that the batters needed to find different scoring options – both in front and behind square as well. This came into prominence earlier this year after Ollie Pope guided England to a famous win in Hyderabad. While India’s batters found their own ways to push back the England threat in the rest of that series, they were unable to do so on a pitch with spin assistance.
“You have to look to get runs also and that’s how you try and put the bowlers under pressure,” Rohit said. “Like I just mentioned about New Zealand batters, they were trying to do different things and it worked very well for them. Because they were trying to do different things and put bowlers under pressure and in that process, there is a good chance that the bowlers will try and do different things, misread the length, and that works in the opposition’s favour and that is exactly what happened.”
“That’s one thing that we wanted to do as a team. Try and play paddle, reverse, sweep. Because when you do those kind of things, they have to take one extra man from the front and put it behind. And that allows you to then play straighter and hit those gaps. And that is what New Zealand did. They exploited that fielders, they played that reverse and sweep and paddle, which meant we had to put the fielders behind square. And that allowed them to then play with a straighter bat as well. So that is what we have been discussing. We need to try and find ways to score runs,” he added.
“Because when you are playing on pitches like this, where the odd ball turns, the odd ball comes with the arm, you have to find options to do different things. And then when you play with that field a little bit, it allows you to then play with a straighter bat as well. We have been talking about that for a while, of sweeping and reverse sweeping and stuff like that. But eventually, when the player goes out in the middle, it is his decision what he thinks at that particular time is right to do against certain bowlers. Certain bowlers, it is not easy to sweep and reverse sweep. Because they get the ball to come in really quick. So yeah, it depends on every batter that is in the middle to take that call. Whether it is doing that or whether it is going down the ground, stepping out and playing with your soft hand, pushing the ball in the gap, all those things. So that is what I think overall, if I look at the last 10-15 Test matches that we played in India, we did that. We were not able to do it in these two games,” Rohit Sharma again stated.
However, he also came out in defence of his two veteran spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who were off the form in the Test and dismissed by Santner in particular, who found the right variety in speeds and trajectories for the tricky pitch and more importantly kept the stumps in play enough to walk away with a stunning spell of 13 for 158 as well.
“There is too much expectation on those two guys. Every game they play, they are expected to take wickets, they are expected to run through the team and they are expected to win Test matches for us. I don’t think that’s fair,” Rohit Sharma said. “It’s the responsibility of all of us to make sure that we get the Test match wins, not just the two guys. Of course, by their standard, they know where they stand and what they haven’t been able to do or what they have done really well. But again, both of them have played so much cricket here and have such huge contributions to our success of having that home streak of 18 series. These two have played a major role in that. So, a couple of series, I am not going to look into too much, especially with those two guys. They know exactly what happens and sometimes they are allowed to have some bad games here and there, and not go by that expectation that this is the opportunity for me to take wickets and run through the opposition.”
“That’s not going to happen every time. So, you got to be ready with the other guys to step in. Like we keep talking about with the batters that it is not the responsibility of a few individuals, it is the collective batting unit who needs to come together. So, it’s the same with the bowling unit as well. If Ash doesn’t do well, it’s Jadeja who needs to come to the party or Washi or Kuldeep or Axar. Those guys. So, it has to be shared amongst everyone. But yeah, look, Washi [Washington Sundar] had a great game. I am really proud of that. He is proud of that and we are happy with his performance. He bowled so well,” he added.
“And then again, like you said about Santner, he kept the ball on the stumps and that is where the challenge happens. When you pitch it on the stumps, you don’t know which one is going away, which one is keeping straight. And that is something that we had to exploit a lot more as a bowling unit to try and make them play as many as possible and pitch it more on the stumps. Those are the things that we will sit and discuss and we will go through it and see where they are at with that,” he shared.
“But again, you are talking about someone who has taken 500 and 300 wickets respectively. So, they know exactly how they have gotten those wickets. And how they have every time come out and won Test matches for us. So, it’s a very hard honestly on them to just have that expectation every time that they turn up that they need to take wickets for us. It can happen. It can happen that things won’t work out for them,” Rohit further added.
Amid talks of a potentially changing of the guard moment in India’s Test cricket, Rohit Sharma opened up on the virtue of stability and said he would not overreact to this one series defeat as well.
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“We are not able to bat properly. So, it is allowed once in 12 years. If there were such collapses for 12 years, then we would not have been able to win. But, in India, we have a lot of expectations. That we have to win all the matches. We have made it a habit. Not that it is your fault. Because we have played such good cricket. So, the expectations have gone above a level where the expectations are that India cannot do anything wrong in India. This does not happen,” he stated.
“Because the opposition is also playing cricket. The opposition has been watching India for so many years. What is India doing? Why does India win so many matches? So, they also come prepared. So, sometimes there is a very small margin where an outside team is coming. They are playing a little better than us and winning. That’s it. I cannot see much in that. Because, as I said, we have played very challenging cricket in the last four years. If you see, we won the last series against Bangladesh. And before that, we won against England. 4-1. If you remember the scenarios, you will know how we won those Test matches. We are sad. It is important to be sad. But, it does not mean that you have to change your entire system. Our system is that we are playing cricket in one way. We just need to change our style a little. That’s it,” Rohit Sharma concluded.
