Rohit Sharma has begun to face some heat after succumbing to a fourth consecutive loss in Tests, with Australia levelling to Border-Gavaskar Trophy at 1-1 after a victory at the Adelaide Oval. Rohit’s return wasn’t a happy one, as he failed individually and also started facing questions regarding his captaincy.
Speaking in the press conference, Rohit fought fire with fire as he demanded more from the members of his team in terms of producing performances consistently. “Right now, I won’t be thinking about Sydney at all. We need to think about what we need to do in Brisbane,” said the Indian skipper.
Rohit also spoke about how India needed to stop thinking of Jasprit Bumrah, who led the victory in Perth, as their only weapon with the ball, and start demanding more from the support cast around their strike bowler. “And, look, it’s a great thing to have someone like Bumrah, but he is not going to be the only one who is going to do the job all the time. We saw Siraj, along with Bumrah, when he got those four wickets, the responsibility was shared. Bumrah will not get wickets at times, and the other guys need to step in,” said Rohit.
Bumrah looked slightly unfit on day two of the Test, not being able to bowl as much or with the same venom as he did in the first match in Perth. Travis Head had great joy against the rest of the Indian bowling, in particular laying into rookie Harshit Rana in only his second Test match.
‘If you want to win a Test or a series…’
The skipper pointed out that this is another reason why the rest of the bowling unit needs to step up. “I keep talking to him (Bumrah) during his spells, asking how his body is holding up. It’s a five-Test series, and we want Bumrah to be fresh and play all five matches. It’s important to analyse these things; workload management is crucial. You can’t expect Bumrah to bowl from both ends, from morning to evening. It’s important to manage the bowlers. We talk to them and then make decisions,” said Rohit.
Rohit was also cognisant of how the batting’s double failure also had to be rectified, not by just one or two players but across the board. “That’s how we talk in the batting group as well, ‘x, y, z’ would not be scoring runs all the time. Everyone in the team understands that. It’s just not about one individual or two; if you want to win a Test or a series, everyone has to share the responsibility, put their hand up, and get the job done. That’s something I have always seen in this team,” argued the five-time IPL winning captain.
India will have less than a week to find the answers after their wholesale struggles in Adelaide, as the series heads to the Gabba in Brisbane, the scene of the climax during India’s famous tour down under last time out.