'Will go to Melbourne with confidence': Rohit

Rohit Sharma

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma hailed the resilience of the lower-order batters after his team managed to salvage a crucial draw in the rain-hit third Test against Australia here on Wednesday, saying it has given the side renewed confidence for the remaining series.

With the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy now tied 1-1, Rohit believes the team's morale will be high during the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

"We will take that. Obviously to have interruptions like that wasn't great, but going to Melbourne at 1-1 pretty much gives us that confidence to go out there and pull things towards us," Rohit said at the post-match presentation.

"The situation we were in just after lunch (on Day Four), needed someone to stand up and take us through, we knew with the weather, it wasn't going to be a full game."

Opener KL Rahul once again shone, top-scoring with 84 before Ravindra Jadeja (77) put up a lower-order resistance. Then the last duo of Akash Deep (31) and Jasprit Bumrah (10 not out) put on a gritty 47-run partnership to help India avoid follow-on before they were all out for 260 in reply to Australia's big first innings score of 445.

"Credit to [Ravindra] Jadeja, the way he played and [KL] Rahul, the way he played was magnificent at the top of the order, the fight that Akash Deep and Bumrah [gave] was great to watch, we have seen them work so hard at the nets [on their batting]," Rohit said.

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