India vs Australia Boxing Day Test, Rohit Sharma: Indian captain Rohit Sharma has extended his support to young batsmen Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Rohit believes that these batsmen will perform well in the remaining two test matches of the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy. Ahead of the fourth Test starting at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday, Rohit defended the young trio. At present the five-match series is tied at 1-1.
Barring opener Jaiswal, wicketkeeper-batsman Pant and right-handed Gill have not scored any half-century in the ongoing series so far. Jaiswal played a brilliant inning of 161 runs in the second innings of the first Test in Perth, in which India won by 295 runs. However, he added only 32 runs in the next four innings.
Pant, on the other hand, has scored only 96 runs in three Tests, while Gill, who missed the first Test due to a thumb injury, has scored only 60 runs in four innings. With the World Test Championship final in mind, Rohit expressed confidence in the youngsters’ ability to redeem themselves in Melbourne and Sydney.
Rohit said, “As I told you, these three youngsters are in the same boat. We don’t need to complicate things by saying anything more than that. Rishabh Pant knows what he has to do. He has high expectations from himself.” He is working hard. Hopefully he will perform in the remaining two matches.”
Talking about left-handed opening batsman Jaiswal, Rohit said that 22-year-old Jaiswal is on his first tour to Australia. He knows his art and leaving it free is the best way for him. Our job is to make the youth aware only about small things.
He said, “Look, Jaiswal is coming here for the first time. He has already shown what he is capable of. When you have a guy like that in the team, you don’t want to mess with his mind too much. Let us be as free as possible.”
Rohit further said, “We don’t want to burden him with too many ideas about his batting. He understands his batting more than any of us. That’s how he has played his cricket, scored all his runs.”
Rohit further said, “We want to make sure that he goes out there and plays his game freely. He has the ability to play all kinds of games. You don’t want to tell him too many things about his batting. If If he starts moving, he could be very dangerous.”
The Indian captain said about Gill, “Gill has quality. Like Jaiswal, we don’t want to complicate things too much with him. He understands his batting very well. He knows how to bowl big. Runs are scored.”
Also read: IND vs AUS 4th Test: “A few years ago…” Pat Cummins said a big thing about Rohit Sharma’s poor form.
