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'It's my biggest challenge more than winning': Rohit Sharma names his main responsibility for Indian cricket as captain
Team India skipper Rohit Sharma talks about one challenge he has taken to himself after leading his side to a massive win against Sri Lanka in the first Test in Mohali.
Rohit Sharma on Sunday became only the second Indian player to win a Test match on captaincy debut as his side thrashed Sri Lanka by an innings and 222 runs in the first Test in Mohali to take a 1-0 series lead. He is currently on winning spree across two formats as captain and while most people would expect him to be content with his success rate, Rohit is far from it.
While speaking to the media in the post-match press conference on Day 3, the opener talked about his biggest challenge apart from winning games.
"If you create that bench strength and you start thinking from now, Indian cricket will be in good hands. This is one of my challenges and one of my responsibilities. I have to take it upon me to create that bench strength, keeping in mind a lot of things," Rohit said at the end of the Test match.
With a few seniors pros missing from action, Rohit stressed on the importance of giving the young bridage a bugger run.
"It's going to be my biggest challenge more than winning games and all of that. For me what is important is how I approach those guys who are sitting outside and how I can get them in a good mindset.
“When they get an opportunity they should be very clear as to what they want to go out there and achieve. That will impact all our performances whether we win or lose games,” said Rohit.
The skipper said that one can't just expect players to turn up and win games.
"You can't just say you have to win games. While winning games there are a lot of things you need to do: create bench strength, give clarity to people, create a good environment so that it's a nice and happy atmosphere where people want to go out there and do their job.
“They should not feel too much pressure. Of course, when you are playing international cricket, pressure is there. But that external pressure shouldn't be there, internal pressure is fine," he added
The onus is on team management to create that atmosphere.
“We will try and back them as much as possible so that at the end of the day when they come back home, they feel 'I got my opportunity, if I didn't do well I'm still happy as long as the role was given to me, there was clarity'. As long as that procedure is put in place, we will hold ourselves in good shape,” Rohit concluded.
