Sports

India’s long term target is to reach World Test Championship final: Rohit Sharma

March 14, 2022
Bharat Times

India captain Rohit Sharma on Monday said his team’s long-term target is to reach the finals of the ongoing World Test Championships and they are willing to accept the way Rishabh Pant bats for his sheer ability to be a game-changer in a matter of minutes.

Rohit also underlined the point that Pant has been asked to respect the conditions and match situation and that the stumper-batter has got better with his game plans.

“We know how he bats and, as a team, we just want to give him that freedom to bat in the way that he wants to bat. But also keep in mind certain situations of the game, where the game is going, we have conveyed that to him but we want to stick with his game plan as a team,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference.

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“It just seems to get better and get better, his game-plans. There will be times when you will smash your head and say ‘why did he play that shot’, but again, we need to be ready to accept that with him when he bats.”

Rohit said the fact that his impact on a game is instant, they are willing to let him bat as he wants to.

“He is somebody who can change the game literally in half an hour or 40 minutes of the game. I think what comes with Rishabh Pant, we are ready to accept that,” he said.

“His keeping was the best that I have seen. He kept well when England came last year and he seems to get better every time he keeps wickets for India, so that is something that I have been very impressed with.

“And also the DRS calls, (he) seems to be making the right calls. DRS we all know, it’s like a lottery. There are certain aspects of the game that I have told him to look into and that’s about it. DRS calls are not something you will always get right, there will be times when you will be making wrong calls, but that’s absolutely okay.”

Rohit said since he hasn’t captained much on the red ball, it was a big thing for him to lead in Tests. It was his first series after Virat Kohli quit his leadership role.

“There are a few senior members in the team who understand the game well and have their input as well. I have my reading of the game as well. But eventually, you work on instinct and my captaincy philosophy is to take a call on that point that seems right to you, keeping in mind of where the game is going. I try to analyse these things on the ground,” he said.

BUMRAH PERFORMANCE: Bumrah troubled the Lankan batters even on a dry pitch that was tailor-made for spinners. He took five wickets in the first innings and three in the second essay.

Rohit said the pacer’s performance was magnificent without a doubt.

“To come out and bowl like that in this kind of conditions shows how much skill and ability he has. Someone like Bumrah, he’s never out of the game whatever the conditions are,” said the captain.

“To bowl on certain pitches, you need certain skill-sets. And he seems to bring those skill-sets into the game depending on what sort of assistance he has from the pitch.

“In Mohali, we saw a different sort of pitch and he was still effective. This was a different kind of pitch. it was turning and bouncing and everything was happening for spinners.”

Bumrah has largely played abroad in the Test format and Rohit said it was imperative to keep the bowlers fresh and ready.

“Keeping everything in mind, the workload, we have to rotate these guys. They continuously play and we’ve to take care of them. So he’s missed a lot of games.

“In coming years, you’ll see a lot of Bumrah playing Tests in India and abroad as well. But as I said, we need to look after these guys really well, make sure they are fresh so that they come out and perform the way these guys have done here. We want to keep them fresh all the time. That’s the challenge for us.”

“But, honestly, we cannot look that far ahead as it does not work like that. We need to look into the present, make sure that there are a few steps to climbing to reach that place. For us, reaching those small goals are very important.

“Having lost the series in SA, it was critical for us to make an impact and get those crucial points for us.

“We were missing two of our experienced batters (Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane) but Hanuma Vihari batting at a new position was a challenge.

“And Iyer batting at six was going to be another challenge, but he showed a lot of maturity in the way he played on those challenging wickets. We pretty much achieved everything that we wanted as a team, boxes got ticked.”