India’s batting is in transition and two men who should carry it forward had ups and downs during the 2024 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Yashasvi Jaiswal suffered some soft dismissals from his 161 in Perth and Shubman Gill did not make the most of his starts. Their captain Rohit Sharma, speaking before the Boxing Day Test, backed both players to succeed using their methods.
‘When you have a guy like [Jaiswal] in your team, in your squad, you don’t want to tamper with his mentality too much,’ Rohit said. ‘Let him be as free as possible and not overloaded with too many thoughts about his beat. He understands his beat more than any of us, you know.
‘Every venue here has different challenges. So, it’s just a matter of adapting to those challenges, playing on different pitches. The bowlers are the same. ‘So, it’s just about understanding what they usually do and what their plans are against certain batsmen when we go out to bat. And then just go out there and do their thing.
Rohit Sharma added while ‘Talking about Gill, I mean, look, he’s quality, we all know that. It’s just a matter of sustaining that quality and making sure we, you know, give him a clear message and not, again, like Jaiswal, we don’t want to overcomplicate things with him.
‘So he knows how to score big points. So it’s just about making sure that when you get that 30, 40, you try to score a big point. Because going in here is the hardest part. And when you get in, that’s when you can’t leave that opportunity to score those big runs.’
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma batted for over half an hour in India’s last practice session before Boxing Day. He did not seem to be struggling after taking a knock on his knee earlier in the day.
There were some crisp shots, including a couple that sent a crowd of about 200 into a frenzy. They had asked for a pull and pulled one from the front foot just as his session was ending. Rohit didn’t engage with them while he was batting, but once the pads came off, he approached them for a playful word or two.
India were able to train on significantly faster pitches in the nets on Christmas Eve, pitches that could more closely resemble the one in the match. Rohit had a look at it on Sunday when there was some grass. Curator Matt Page said there would not be too much seam movement, but that it would offer an exciting contest.
‘In the previous two or three Test matches, the wicket didn’t have that much grass,’ Rohit said. ‘It was dry. But this certainly doesn’t feel like a dry wicket.’
The first day of the MCG Test is expected to be very hot, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius, but then it should cool down. India are considering the option of fielding an extra spinner, Washington Sundar, who has had a bat against leading bowlers including Jasprit Bumrah and who has also enjoyed bowling to KL Rahul and Virat Kohli in the nets, or an extra seamer, Prasidh Krishna, who has not played on this tour but has been working hard in the nets for the past month.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy series is tied 1-1 with two Tests to play and those results will also have an implication on both teams’ hopes of reaching the World Test Championship final in June. Australia or India, if they manage to win in Melbourne and Sydney, will qualify for that match regardless of the other results.
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