Rohit Sharma heaped praise on his teammates after India‘s impressive 106-run win over England in the recently concluded second Test in Vishakhapatnam. The hosts wrapped up the game inside four days to draw level in the five-match series.
Chasing an improbable target of 399 runs, England came up with a fighting performance but were eventually bowled out for 292. Zak Crawley top-scored for his side, scoring 73 while Ben Foakes (36) and Tom Hartley (36) were the other notable contributors.
The likes of Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Ollie Pope, and Jonny Bairstow got the starts but failed to convert them into big scores. For Team India, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin picked up 3 wickets apiece. Earlier in the game, India scored 395 runs in the first innings thanks to a brilliant double-century from Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Rohit Sharma shares his views on the second Test:
In reply to India’s first innings total, England scored 253 with Crawley (76) top-scoring in that innings as well. For India, Bumrah was the pick of the bowlers, taking 6 for 45. In the second innings, a century from Shubman Gill helped India recover from a disastrous start to post 255.
Speaking at the end of the second Test, Rohit Sharma began by praising Bumrah who finished the game with an impressive 9 wickets. He highlighted the challenging conditions and praised other bowlers as well for helping the team to win the game.
“He is a champion player for us (Bumrah). When you win a game like that, you have to look at the overall performance as well. We were good with the bat. You know winning a Test in these conditions is not easy. Wanted our bowlers to step up and they did that,” said Rohit Sharma.
Speaking further, Rohit also admitted that India’s batters failed to capitalize on the starts. Barring Jaiswal and Gill, no other Indian batter could score a fifty in the game although most of them got good starts. At the same time, the India skipper also defended the batsmen, saying that most of them are still trying to find their feet in the longest format of the game.
“Wickets was really good to bat on. If I have to point anything, lot of the batters got starts but couldn’t get big score. But I understand they’re young and new to the game. Important for us to give them confidence. Very proud of such a young squad to come up against a team like that.
“Lot of the guys are quite young in terms of playing this form of the game. It’ll take some time to be absolutely spot on. Want them to play freely without any pressure. Last couple of years England have been playing good cricket. Knew it wasn’t going to be an easy series. Three more to go,” said Rohit Sharma.
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