It was a typical Rohit Sharma press-conference on eve of the fifth India-England Test. The mood was relaxed, answers were long and patient, cricketing logic was bang on target and there were plenty of snappy one-liners. For close to thirty minutes, the skipper juggled between Hindi and English, slipped in a smirk, maintained the wit, and effortlessly hit “Bazball” out of the park.
Four Tests and eight England innings later, the Indian captain is yet to understand the meaning of the term and hasn’t found a pattern in the opposition’s approach in the ongoing series to reach to a conclusion. One innings at a time, India have continuously found ways to keep the visitors under check and the 3-1 scoreline is a reminder that “Bazball” hasn’t really arrived in this part of the world.
“Honestly, I don’t know what Bazball means… whether it is to go and strike? whether it is to go and defend and wait for the loose ball? because I’ve not seen any wild swinging from anyone. I don’t know exactly what this term means,” says Rohit.
The skipper was quick to add that the visitors have played better cricket than the last time they were here, lauded couple of opposition batters for scoring hundreds in the series and threw a typical Rohit one-liner when he was reminded of Ben Duckett’s comment on Yashasvi Jaiswal in Rajkot.
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“I think there was this guy called Rishabh Pant in our team. Probably Ben Duckett hasn’t seen him bat,” comes the crisp response.
‘A series of comebacks’
One match at a time, India have found ways to come back and dominate after being put under the pump in their last three Tests. There were moments in Visakhapatnam, Rajkot and Ranchi where England did take control of proceedings but the hosts’ ability to stage a comeback in those pressure situations has pleased the skipper the most.
“The way we won is important for me because a lot of time we were behind in the game, and we bounced back from there. From the first Test to the Ranchi test. We were ahead in Hyderabad but lost that Test. The Vizag Test went neck-to-neck. In Rajkot we scored big, but they came back to bat well and it was important for us to comeback and we did. So, after day 2, day 3 and 4 we dominated after they played good cricket.
“Basically, it has been a series of comebacks and we made good comebacks in the series. If we were behind on Day 2 we have comeback well on Day 3. We have comeback from being down in one session to dominating the next. So, throughout the series you must have seen that we have absorbed pressure and put it back on the opposition. This has been satisfying, especially with a group of boys, who have not been under such pressure situation,” says Rohit.
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It has been a busy month for Rohit where he had to juggle roles of captain, batter, and elder brother to the younger players in the squad. There were as many as four debutants in the series and the unavailability of key senior players only made the job at hand tougher.
“Studying a lot”
Ever since he took over as Test captain, Rohit has had to deal with injury and availability issues across formats, but he has continued to find a way. With a lot of “studying”, the right dressing room environment and a relaxed approach, success has come his way and the team’s way.
“I haven’t studied much in school, but I am studying here a lot. It is important that every team tries to play differently and to understand that is important. I enjoy that as I get to learn about my game and about captaincy. So, it is a good process for me. I don’t think that players are injured, or players are not available. Since I became captain, I haven’t played with a full team. It’s no excuse, but it is what it is, so you can’t change that thing.
“Work with what you have and keep a good atmosphere, play with freedom. That’s what we have done since the first Test. Even when we were under pressure and their batters were hitting, we remained relaxed because you don’t get a result on every 2 or 3 balls in a Test match. it is a big game and patience is important. So, they have hit 15-20 balls, no worries. Find a way to come back. This message is sent to all XI players when we are on the ground,” says Rohit.
Rohit the Test captain is still working in progress. There have been occasions where he has been guilty of being a tad defensive and losing control over situations but has been slightly more proactive in the ongoing series. Even when the team has had an off day – for instance Day 2 of the Rajkot Test when Duckett smashed Indian bowlers – he came better prepared the next day with smarter field placements and better rotation of bowlers.
“It was a great series for me to learn as a captain and there are a lot of different challenges that came across our way right from Test No. 1 till now. During the series as well, as a captain, this was probably the series where I got to learn a lot about how to utilise the players I have at their best and obviously, when the pressure is put back on you, how to respond to certain situations of the game and things like that. I think it was a great series to be part of. I am glad that I was captaining this series, it made me understand where I have lacked as a captain as well and what are the things I need to do differently as well. Well, learnings from this series is big,” says Rohit.
The captain concluded his press-conference with another one-liner and an unintentional mix-up between “Nazare” (views) with “Nazariya” (point of view).
“We might not have played in India but have played in England. I don’t believe it is a big challenge (playing in Dharamsala). Aisa nahi hai humko kahi laake baitha diya jaha ka humko kuch pata hi nahi (they’ve not brought our team to a place where we don’t know what to do. We’ve been in such a situation before).
“It’s a different place, the view is so nice from the ground. Agar pressure hoga to hum nazariye ko dekh lege (If there’s pressure, we’ll try to just turn around and look towards the mountain and we’ll cool down),” concluded Rohit.
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