12 February,2023 09:38 AM IST | Nagpur | SS Ramaswamy
Rohit Sharma
India were prepared to play for a much longer time to earn victory over Australia and India skipper Rohit Sharma was surprised that the visitors collapsed so dramatically in the second innings.
Rohit's India scored an emphatic innings and 132-run victory inside three days in the four-Test series opener at the VCA Stadium in Jamtha here on Saturday.
"No, I didn't [expect Australia to collapse in one session]. I thought the pitch was good. We were prepared to spend more sessions on the field. We never thought they would be bowled out in a session. As you saw, the pitch got slower and slower and there was not much bounce. So, yes, it was a surprise for me," said Rohit in his post-match media conference.
There were quite a few notable individual performances, including his own splendid century (120) in India's first innings score of 400 and Rohit was pleased that it came at the right time for the team when he was asked to rate it against his 161 against England in Chennai in February 2021. "I am very happy with those two knocks [161 v England at Chennai and here against Australia] as both came at the right time for the team. But I don't want to rate them," he declared.
Rohit was clear that neither he nor his teammates are taking Australia lightly ahead of the second Test at Delhi from Friday when asked whether he expected the visitors to bounce back like India had done after being shot out for 36 at Adelaide on their last visit to Australia.
"The good thing about this team is we don't think about what has happened in the past. It is important to stay in the present. Lots of guys who played in that series are not here. For us, also a few guys are missing. Australia love playing Test cricket and pride themselves in representing their country. So we are quite aware of them bouncing back. We are pretty much aware of what they can do as a team as well. By no means we are ruling them out and want to play cricket like we did here in the next three games," he emphasised.
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Rohit conceded that it was tricky at times to juggle three quality spinners like he had in the Indian playing XI, adding it was a blessing that he had such top bowlers at his command. "When you have their quality on pitches like these, it is always a blessing. The conditions are there, but you need to extract those conditions which are the same for both teams. To come out and extract those from the pitch is what makes them special. They have played on pitches like these a lot and know what to do and keep the pressure on to prise out mistakes from the opposition.
"A little tough honestly [juggling them] when they are all reaching their milestones. Jadeja was telling me that he was on 249 wickets [to give me the ball]. Ashwin had four and wanted the fifth. That is the challenge I am facing. I don't know much about milestones, but these guys are aware of them. That's the challenge of captaining them.
"I try to play a little bit of a match-up game as well. Ash is good against left handers and has a great record against them. Jadeja and Axar have unbelievable match-ups against right handers," Rohit remarked.
