Captain of the Indian national cricket team Rohit Sharma finally opened up on the struggles of young batsmen Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gilland Rishabh Pant in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Rohit Sharma said that Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant are fully aware of what Team India needs from them in series and management does not want to complicate things for them.
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Rishabh Pant knows what he has to do – Rohit Sharma
Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has not been at his best in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series against Australia. He failed to replicate his heroics from the previous tour Down Under and scored just 96 runs in 5 innings at an average of 19.20.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Rohit Sharma said that Rishabh Pant has form on his side and has performed brilliantly in the last few Test matches at home for India.
The India captain added that Pant should not be judged on the basis of his failures in three Test matches and hopes he will be back to his best in the rest of the five-match Test series.
“There is no pressure. He has only played three Tests here. He has scored runs in India. He has been in good form. If two or three Tests go up and down, too much judgment is not fair. He knows what he has. has work to do,” said Rohit.
“See, as I told you, all these young men – Rishabh, Gill, Jaiswal, all these young men are in the same boat.”
“Our job here is to keep talking to them about small things like match awareness. I don't think we need to tell them more and complicate things. Rishabh Pant knows what he has to do. He himself has a lot of expectations from him he is working hard, I hope he clicks in the last two matches,” Rohit Sharma added.
Look, Jaiswal, he is coming here for the first time – Rohit Sharma
Opening batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal is the third highest run scorer in the ongoing test series with 193 runs in 6 innings at an average of 38.60. However, out of 193, 161 runs came off the bat in one innings in Perth and he struggled in other games.
While talking about Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma said that the left-handed batsman is on his first tour in Australia and burdening him with “too many thoughts” would not be the right thing to do.
He also said that Jaiswal has already shown his potential and the team management wants him to bat freely.
“Look, Jaiswal, he's coming here for the first time. He's already shown what he's capable of. When you have a guy like that in your team, you don't want to change his mindset too much. Let him be as free as you can.
“We try not to overload him with too much thinking about batting. He understands his batting more than any of us. That's how he's played his cricket, he's scored all the runs. We want to make sure he goes out there and plays his game free has the ability to play all kinds of games, be it the holding game or the dominating game,” said Rohit.
Talking about Gill, he is quality – Rohit Sharma
India's No.3 Shubman Gill missed the first Test and since returning to the playing XI has shown some promise but failed to score big. In 3 innings, he scored only 60 runs at an average of 20.
Rohit Sharma further spoke about Shubman Gill and said that he is a quality batsman and needs to be supported with a clear message from the management. The skipper added that Gill needs to make sure he starts well and then converts them into big scores.
“Talking about Gill, he's quality. It's just about supporting that quality and making sure we send him clear messages. Like Jaiswal, we don't want to overcomplicate things with him. He understands his batting very well. He knows how to score big runs.
“It's just making sure that when you get 30, 40 seconds, you have to turn that into big runs. Getting in is the hardest part here, so when you get in, you have to try to score big runs,” he added he.