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Former India head coach Ravi Shastri said the only way a struggling Rohit Sharma can assert himself in the upcoming Brisbane Test is by throwing the first blow towards Australia as the opener. Rohit could manage just nine runs in two innings as the number six batsman in India’s 10-wicket defeat to Australia at the Adelaide Oval as the hosts squared the five-match series 1-1. Those two scores meant Rohit now has an average of just 11.83 in his last six Tests. “That’s where he’s been at his best for the last eight or nine years. It’s not that he’s going to set the world on fire – he could – but that’s the place that’s best for him. to lead at the front. If he has to do damage, if he has to deliver the first blow, that is the best place for him to do it.
“And it’s important that India get their verdict here because 1-1 in the series, this is the touching Test match. I think whichever team wins this Test match will win the series. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind. It’s so it is very important that India finds the right balance, because Australia has regained its confidence,” Shastri said in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Shastri, who coached India to consecutive 2-1 Test series wins in Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21, recalled how Shubman Gill advised Rishabh Pant, who was left 89 not out, on scripting a memorable chase of 328 in the Gabba, to seal an unforgettable series win.
“I will never forget it. The last session, 140 runs to get. We had two different dressing rooms due to Covid. I went out of the coaches room to have a chat with Rishabh or (Cheteshwar) Pujara. When I was, As I was about to reach the toilet, I heard a conversation between Gill and Pant.
“Seventy-one overs bowled; Gill had got out for 91, and they were the two youngest players in the side, 21 and 22. ‘There are nine overs left, they need the new ball, they will take (Marnus) Labuschagne with his leg is turning, you have to score 45-50 runs there’.
“They’re planning how to get closer to the final score, and I wasn’t going to stop them in any way; I don’t want to change that mentality. So I just walked past them and said ‘do what you gotta do.’ we chased almost 150 in that last session,” he concludes.
Shastri also stated that the Indian team’s unity during the 2020/21 series despite strict Covid-19 measures was crucial to their epic win, especially after they were 36 all out in the series opener in Adelaide.
‘Being locked up and then having to give the best of yourself in the middle, and in a country like India where 1.4 billion people live, there is no sympathy. ‘To hell with Covid, what is Covid, win the Test match very well.’ That’s all they want. So there is no shelter in our part of the world.
“In Covid you start the first Test match with five bowlers and the same five bowlers don’t play the final Test. That says it all, it’s like Australia playing without these five bowlers in the final Test of the series; it’s a different ball game .
“Plus you didn’t have that many batsmen either. So it’s a tribute to the players. As a coach you can only do so much from behind the scenes. Ultimately it’s the players who have to go out there and did their job and they were fantastic” , he concluded.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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