India has been playing Tests in England for a long time, but there has never been a Test match at the Oval in June. There isn’t much to go on as the bowling combination is still up in the air before the final of the World Test Championship against Australia. Add to that a 10.30 a.m. start time. But Rohit Sharma isn’t worried about anything the team can’t change and is still hoping to win his first ICC title as captain.
“My job is to make sure that Indian cricket moves forward every time,” he said on Thursday. “It doesn’t matter if it’s me or someone else; their job was to move Indian cricket forward and win as many games and championships as possible.” “It will be the same for me, too. I want to win games and I want to win titles. That’s the reason you play. And, sure, it would be great to win some titles or a great game.
“But even so, I think we shouldn’t put too much pressure on ourselves by thinking too much about things like this. As a captain, I want to win championships just like every other leader does. I, too, want to win the title. And the whole point of the sport is to win titles. So, when I decide to leave this job, it would be nice if I could win one or two titles. So that’s good. So we’ll just wait and see what happens.
“Tomorrow, we’ll start a new task. The next five days will be hard for us and give us a chance to win the championship, but we know that it’s not easy to win the championship. To win the title, you have to do a lot of things right. Right now, we’re only thinking about how we can win this game and do well. So all of the talks and plans have been about that. I haven’t really given much thought to what will happen in the future.
“Honestly, it’s always nice because I’ve always thought that you should focus on what’s in front of you instead of thinking too far ahead about what could happen and what you want to do. But I have certain things in mind that I want to do. So I’m going to try to do that.
India hasn’t won an ICC title since the 2013 Champions Trophy, even though they’ve done well and made it to several rounds and finals, including the 2021 WTC final. But Rohit wouldn’t say what was wrong with India that they couldn’t do well in the knockout games of ICC Championships. He also didn’t pay much attention to what Ricky Ponting said about how the weather will be good for Australia.
“That’s how he sees it. He is free to say what he thinks. Time will tell which team made the best use of the weather.Honestly, it doesn’t matter much to us because we know what’s at stake and need to keep our attention there. And the team is going to do that. Whoever makes the best use of the rules will probably win the game. Just like that. And being able to handle the pressure during these five days, because there will be times when all the teams are under pressure. To win, you have to be able to change and deal with that pressure well.
Many of India’s batters just had great seasons in the Indian Premier League, which just ended. However, it will be hard for them to adjust to the difficulties of Test cricket with the Dukes ball in England. The attention is on opening batsman Shubman Gill, who led the IPL in runs. Rohit is sure that the young starter will be able to handle what will be asked of him.
“With the way he’s hitting right now, I don’t think he needs any help. It’s just about how he’s prepared in the last five or six days since he got back from the IPL. He has played before when the weather was like this. He played in the final of the World Test Championship and in that one-off test match that took place last year. You know that Gil likes to play baseball.
“As you saw, he is a hitter who likes to bat and spends a lot of time in the middle. I know that he got big, big hundreds even though it was a T20 competition. He likes to be in the middle of things and be challenged. That’s what he likes, and that’s what I’ll hope for and what Team India will hope for, too: that he spends a lot of time in the middle and plays well, just like he has been doing for the last 6 or 8 months. There’s not much more to tell him, to be honest. It’s all about giving him confidence, since he’s already a very confident player. So it’s just a matter of making him feel more and more sure of himself.
One of the biggest decisions the team’s leaders will have to make is whether to send in two spinners or just one. Rohit said that the team won’t decide on the bowling mix until tomorrow.
