India’s newly-appointed white-ball captain Rohit Sharma has opened up on the speculation of an alleged rift between himself and former captain Virat Kohli. He stated that these discussions don’t bother them and it doesn’t affect the dressing room also.
Speaking at the end of the third ODI against the West Indies, the Indian captain said: “Noise will be around as long as we’re playing. People look up to us, everybody watches us. As players, as individuals, we know what we need to focus on. Outside noise doesn’t bother the dressing room.”
However, Rohit Sharma asserted that both Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal are important to India’s future plans and they will play together again at some stage. On the other hand, he opined on India’s long-drawn middle-order conundrum as Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer have stepped up and started providing the much-needed strength.
He said: “Both Kuldeep and Chahal are crucial players for us. Especially Kuldeep. Chahal was very much in the plans and Kuldeep went off the radar. It was important to get him back slowly. Important to give them that confidence. We start expecting things early than expected, important to give them some cushion. Pretty sure we’ll see them together soon. That was the biggest takeaway for us – the middle order batting. Today was again a great game for the middle order. We were 40/3. For me that’s the biggest takeaway.”
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Rohit Sharma was also asked if the team management has been helping Virat Kohli’s confidence. He said that the think-tank was more worried about India’s middle-order batting as well.
The captain said: “Does Virat Kohli need confidence? What are you talking about? (chuckles) I think not scoring 100 is a different thing [but] he played a series in South Africa and scored two fifties in three matches. I don’t see anything wrong. And the team management is not at all worried. What we were worried about was, you know, how we will be challenged in the middle overs and I thought our middle overs batting in this series was really good.”
Rohit again added: “We batted well and according to the conditions. We’ve been talking about it for a long time that our middle-order doesn’t get too many chances to bat because the top-3 bats a lot. In this series, you saw how our middle-order batted and how well they read the situations. As a team, it was a big positive for us and we would like to carry that forward.”
While speaking about the roles of the middle-order batters going ahead, Rohit Sharma said that he wants them to have “as much game time as possible” and if one of them could also contribute with the ball it would be great for them as well.
He said: “See, in One-Day cricket the No. 4, 5 and 6 are very, very important. Some of the greats of Indian cricket have batted at those numbers… but see, for us, it’s important whoever those 4, 5 and 6 are they get enough game time. And of course, if we have a bowling option in those guys, nothing like it. But honestly, for me, it’s important for them to have as much game time as possible.”
Rohit Sharma further added: “We’ve got a lot of candidates for those numbers and it’s a good headache to have and a good competition within themselves to come out and play and perform… Everyone in the middle-order, whenever they got an opportunity to bat, performed and got the runs as well. And they batted in difficult situations as well. In the last two games, we were 40-3 odd and we had to build the innings. In both games, we managed to do that so it’s a good sign moving forward.”
He also termed the team’s bowling the biggest positive from the three-match ODI series win. After having won the ODI series, the Indian team will now take on the Windies in a three-match T20I series in Kolkata starting February 16 as well.
He elaborated: “The fast bowlers and the spinners, they did a great job in this particular series. Along with Prasidh (Krishna), (Mohammed) Siraj was outstanding the way he bowled, with a lot of pace again. Shardul (Thakur) played a couple of games, bowled well in the middle. Deepak (Chahar), I was very impressed with his skills as well, the way he swings the ball.”
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“Honestly, I can’t tell you about Test cricket. But certainly he has impressed everyone with his bowling in this particular series. We were looking for someone like him to come out, bowl those overs in the middle and get us those breakthroughs. He has a lot of pace and we could see that he was getting something out of the pitch as well. From a team’s perspective, it’s a good sign that he was able to come out and do that. He is definitely a prospect for the future, no doubt about that,” he continued.
Rohit claimed again: “Everyone and all the guys who have not been retained will be glued to the TV, watching what is happening. I am certainly keeping my phone off. We have ticked a lot of boxes this series. Whatever we wanted to get out of the series, we got.”
“The noise will be around as long as we are playing. We know we are playing a high-profile sport in India and people look up to us and watch us. As players and individuals, we know what we need to focus on. The outside noise doesn’t bother the dressing room. As long as we can come out and do what we are expected to do, that is very important,” Rohit Sharma concluded.
