Indian captain Rohit Sharma showed his witty side at the post-match press conference as he talked about rotating his three spinners Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel in the opening Test against Australia at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. On Saturday, 11 January, India beat Australia by an innings and 132 runs to take a 1–0 lead in the four-match series.
Rohit Sharma Discusses the Difficulty in Managing Ashwin and Jadeja’s Milestone Approaches
Ashwin and Jadeja were in deep trouble as they took five wickets each to break the backbone of the Australian batting unit. Rohit, who became the first Indian captain to score a century in all three formats, quipped how both Ashwin and Jadeja wanted to bowl to reach their respective milestones.
“It’s really tough (juggling Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar). They are reaching their milestones. Ravindra Jadeja was telling me that he is on 249 wickets. He is telling me ‘mereko ball dedo’. Ashwin was on 4 wickets, he was closer to a 5-wicket haul. He was saying, ‘I want to bowl yaar’. That’s the challenge I am facing at the moment with these guys.
Watch Video :
Rohit Sharma full Interview #INDvsAUS #BorderGavaskarTrophy2023 #CricketTwitter #RohitSharma𓃵 pic.twitter.com/Zozq2WrqUF
— Vishesh Jain (@Vishesh2495) February 11, 2023
“I really don’t know too much about the milestones. But these guys are quite aware of it. That’s the challenge of captaining them, rather than giving them which end or not,” Rohit was quoted as saying. “All these 3 guys are quality bowlers. Whichever end is more helpful, all the spinners want to bowl from that end. That’s obvious. But the pressure is on me, to find the right end for the right one,” he stated.
Rohit, who scored 120 in the first innings to help India take a 223-run lead, talked about the match and how he used his spin resources to good effect.
“It’s a challenge, but I try a little bit of match-ups as well. Ash has a good match-up against left-handers. Not that he can’t get right-handers out, but he has got a great record against left-handers. Ravindra Jadeja and Axar have unbelievable match-ups against right-handers. I try to rotate 3 of them,” Rohit added.
Jadeja won the player of the match award after taking seven wickets in the match as well as scoring 70 runs in India’s first innings. The second Test is to begin on February 17 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. India has never lost a home Test series against Australia since 2004.