Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was delighted after they defeated Australia by 2-1 to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy, following a mundane draw at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. Speaking about the positives, Rohit feels the team came up with a collective effort as almost all the players put their hands up at different stages of the series.
India was brilliant in the first two Test matches at Nagpur and Delhi as the players delivered whenever they were put under the pump. Both the matches were played on challenging wickets but the home team was able to win the crucial stages to take an impregnable lead of 2-0 in the series.
However, India wasn’t at their best at Indore as they couldn’t come up with a good batting performance.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara Virat Kohli, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammad Shami all played an instrumental role in the series win. However, it was India’s lower order in the first two Test matches which bailed the team out of trouble.
Rohit Sharma said at the post-match presentation, “Was a fantastic series. Right from the word go, how exciting it was. Lot of the players are playing this for the first time. We do understand the importance of this series and the opposition. Lot of hard work has gone into this. At different times we have come up with answers. We knew how important it was to start the series well. The Delhi Test, I am very proud of. We were behind in the game.”
He added, “At Indore, we were put under pressure and lost the game. Different players put their hands up. A lot of guys took up the responsibility and bailed us out. Test Cricket is hard-fought cricket and isn’t easy. I am quite satisfied. I know what kind of benchmark I have set for myself. I keep the personal milestones aside. We have got the result of what I wanted from the series. To get the result makes us very happy.”
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma also led from the front and his first innings knock of 120 runs at Nagpur set the platform for the home team. This was Rohit’s first big Test series as captain in home conditions and he was able to get the best out of his players.
Rohit will miss the first ODI against Australia due to personal reasons and Hardik Pandya will lead in his absence.
