After record win, Rohit Sharma backs team to succeed on any pitch

PTI

Rajkot, February 18

Skipper Rohit Sharma stressed on the Indian team’s ability to win games on any surface, including rank turners, following its record win over England. “We have won a lot of matches on such wickets before. The turning tracks and on pitches where the ball turns remain our strength. It gives us balance,” Rohit said.

3 Yashasvi Jaiswal became the third Indian batter with double-centuries in consecutive Tests. He is the third youngest player to score two double-tons in Tests

4 Sarfaraz Khan became the fourth India batter with 50-plus scores in both innings on debut in Tests

Test cricket is not played over two days or three days. We understand the importance of staying in the game. England played well and put us under pressure but we have class bowlers and the message was to stay calm. Rohit Sharma, India captain

We know things don’t always work out exactly how you want them to. We will leave this game behind us. We have to win the next two to win the series and that’s what we will be trying to do. Ben Stokes, England captain

“We have given results for many years and we will get results in the future as well. But we don’t have control over certain things — we don’t discuss whether we want rank turners or not. We come here (at the venues) two days before the match and how much can we do anyway in two days? The curators decide and make the pitch. We have the strength to play on any wicket and win on it. When we won the Test in South Africa (at Cape Town), everyone knows what kind of wicket it was,” he added.

Rohit said the Indian team has found a way through all conditions witnessed in the first three Tests. “(In) the last three Tests we played, there were different challenges. In the first Test (Hyderabad), the ball was spinning and the pitch was slow. In Vizag, it was (keeping) low. As the game progressed, the wicket became slower. Here, it played well for the first three days. Today, we saw that the ball was turning and it was low. This is (in) the nature (of pitches), we get pitches like these in India. But if we get rank turners, we will play on them as well,” he said.

Looks like they belong: Rohit on young guns

Rajkot: India skipper Rohit Sharma credited the young and inexperienced members of his side for their role in delivering the team’s record Test win. “Obviously it’s a very good feeling to win a game like that and especially with such a young team as well. (We had) two debutants (Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel) and not a lot of Test matches amongst the playing eleven as well,” Rohit said. “A lot of these guys are learning from the experience that they’re having in the middle. We got to learn a lot about how we played in Hyderabad and then in Vizag when we won.”

Rohit said India have had to work really hard given the circumstances (injuries to senior players). “We knew it’s not going to be an easy one for us to just come out here and win the series. We have (had) to work really, really hard, especially with a lot of our frontline players missing as well,” Rohit said. “A lot of credit to these young boys who have come in and showed a lot of character. Looks like they actually belong here and they want to stay here as well,” he added. PTI

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