India skipper Rohit Sharma hails youth brigade’s hunger for success after 5-wicket win over England in 4th Test ensures series victory; insists that only those players who value Test cricket will be given opportunities in future
Team India players are all smiles after their five-wicket win over England in the 4th Test at Ranchi yesterday. Pics/PTI
Prioritise Test cricket or perish was India skipper Rohit Sharma’s stern piece of advice for anyone aspiring to play for the country after the hosts beat England by five wickets in the fourth Test here to go 3-1 up in the five-match series and effectively clinch the Anthony De Mello Trophy.
Skipper’s clear message
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Rohit made it crystal clear about what he wants from his teammates in terms of commitment, especially in the longest format of the game. “Jin ladko ko bhook hai hum unhi ladko ko mauka denge [only the guys who have the hunger to play Test cricket will be given opportunities]. Agar hunger nahi hai to unko khila ke koi matlab nahi hai [if there’s no hunger then there’s no point in playing those players],” said Rohit at the post-match press conference after scoring a gutsy 55 on a challenging surface during his team’s tricky fourth innings run-chase of 192.
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Shubman Gill (left) and Dhruv Jurel celebrate the win
Interestingly, Rohit’s comments were made after it was reported that the BCCI had already sent a strongly worded letter to some of players, urging them not to skip domestic games to keep themselves in shape for the IPL. “It’s [Test cricket] a tough format and if you want success and if you want to excel, then hunger is very important. You eventually get to know who doesn’t have that hunger to play Tests. IPL is a good format no doubt, but this is the most difficult format to get success. We have seen in this series and the four matches that we played and the last three victories [Vizag, Rajkot and Ranchi] were not easy. We had to work hard, batsmen had to spend time in the middle and bowlers had to bowl long spells. This is hard work,” Rohit explained.
The ongoing series has seen quite a few Indian youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Akash Deep and Sarfaraz Khan excelling under difficult circumstances in the absence of some big guns. Some of them made their debuts in this series, but looked at ease at this level in terms of both skill and temperament. The skipper was all praise for their effort and even predicted that these boys will feature in Test cricket “regularly” in the coming years. “A lot of these guys are quite young and you’ll see these guys playing in the coming 5-10 years regularly in this format for sure. The way they have come and taken the responsibility, scored big runs. Whoever uses the opportunity and helps the team win and performs, gets noted and that’s important,” added the 36-year-old, who recently completed 4000 runs in Tests.
Gill’s gritty 52 not out
Earlier in the day Shubman Gill (52 not out) along with the impressive Jurel (39 not out) bailed India out from 120 for 5 after resuming Day 4 at 40 for no loss. As expected, the wicket did have a trick up its sleeves as Shoaib Bashir (3 for 79) got three wickets in quick succession. In fact, India went through a phase of 30 overs without a boundary to adapt to the crumbling surface. But under the testing conditions Gill and Jurel stuck together for a well-measured unbeaten 72-run sixth-wicket stand with the Indian wicketkeeper-batter consequently bagging the Player of the match award. “Dhruv Jurel, especially, playing in his second game, showed solid composure and calmness. He has the shots as well and played all around the wicket. The first-innings 90 was very crucial for us to get close to England. And then, again in the second innings, he showed a lot of maturity and composure along with Shubman Gill,” said Rohit lavishing praise on the youngster who only got his opportunity due to the poor form of KS Bharat and in the absence of Ishan Kishan.
Brief scores
England 353 & 145 lose to India 307 & 192-5 (R Sharma 55, S Gill 52 not out; S Bashir 3-79) by five wickets
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