In a series as important as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy where India needed their finest to deliver in order to stay in the hunt for a spot in the WTC finale, they didn’t just deliver but they were overwhelmingly brilliant that saw them seizing a clinical couple of victories over the Aussies.
The Indian captain, Rohit Sharma was ecstatic to see his team calling the shots on majority of the occasions and the ability that Team India displayed in turning the game on its head, thanks to the Indian lower middle-order that saved the Indian ship twice in the series.
Rohit opened up at length in the post-match conference and the smile on the captain’s face is almost everything that you would want going your way. He started with, “I mean fantastic result for us, looking at how things were yesterday. How we came back and finished the job was a great effort from the bowlers. Even though the deficit was just one run, I felt we were very much behind; we had to bat last. I mean on a pitch like that, you have to come out and try to do different things.”
Talking about India’s approach at the start of day 3, Rohit said, “We knew they were going to come and play shots. For us, it was about not panicking and we had to hit those areas rather than panicking. I’ve seen them bowl enough and take wickets on these kinds of conditions. We had discussed some things in the morning that we had to do, and that worked for us”
Rohit also explained the conditions on day 3 as well, stating, “Look, every game you play here there is some moisture and what I notice in three days is it has a lot to offer in the first session. Then the pitch gets slower and slower and there is not enough bite in the pitch – it’s something we focussed on.”
He also revealed the crucial words that he would tell his bowlers, adding, “I had a good chat with the bowlers and they are masters of these conditions. It was important for us to stay calm and let the mistakes happen.” Rohit concluded by picking the point that completely changed the scenario of the game as he said, “When you play Test cricket, there are a lot of [big] moments, but I thought the partnership between Virat and Jadeja and Axar and Ash… to get that hundred partnership was never going to be easy. Even then, we knew we had to bowl well and restrict them to as low as possible.”
