‘Absolute rubbish. If Ravi thinks…': Rohit Sharma's raging reply to Shastri's ‘overconfident’ jibe at Team India
Indian captain Rohit Sharma 'rubbished' Ravi Shastri's claims that Team India were overconfident in Indore. Rohit said their 'ruthlessness' should not be taken as overconfidence.
One thing common between Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's captaincy is the way they defend their team against 'outside noise'. Both Rohit and Kohli do not take criticism from the former cricketers, experts or the media lightly. The pre-match press conference ahead of the series-deciding fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia was another such example. Rohit was asked whether the Indian team was a bit 'overconfident' after winning the first two Tests in Nagpur and Delhi, which led to their downfall in the previous Test in Indore.
It was former India head coach Ravi Shastri who made the comments while commentating in Indore. "This is what a little complacency, a little bit of overconfidence can do. When you take things for granted, you drop guard and this game will bring you down," Shastri said in the commentary after Australia beat India on the third morning of the Test match.
The former India all-rounder was referring to the shots played by some of the Indian batters in the first innings. India were bowled out for 109, which gave Australia a huge advantage.
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"I think it was a combination of all these things when you actually cast your mind back to the first innings, see some of the shots played, see some of the over-eagerness to try and dominate in these conditions. You reflect back, take a step back or two to analyse," Shastri added.
The Indian captain 'rubbished' the claims and said their 'ruthlessness' should not be taken as overconfidence.
"When you win two games, if the people outside are feeling we are overconfident, that's absolutely rubbish. You want to do your best in all the games. You don't want to stop by winning just two matches," Rohit said in Ahmedabad on the eve of the Test match.
The India captain even did not shy away from taking Shastri's name and terming the former coach an ‘outsider’.
"All these guys, when they talk about being overconfident, especially when they are not part of the dressing room, they don't know what sort of conversations happen. Ruthless is the word that comes to my mind, we don't want to give any inch to the opposition. Oppositions never let you come into the series when you tour abroad. We want to do that. If it seems overconfident to people outside then we can't do anything. Ravi himself has been a part of this dressing room, he knows what conversations we have, what mindset we have. So yeah. it's about being ruthless, not being overconfident," he added.
Rohit, for his part, did agree to the fact that the Indian batting unit has been far from their best in the series. They have crossed the 300-run mark only once in the five times in the series. In the Indore Test, they were bowled out for 109 and 163. Even when they did get the biggest total of the series (400) in the first innings of the Nagpur Test, it was their all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin with the bulk of the scoring after a century from captain Rohit.
India have lost half their side for scores of 168, 125, 45 and 113 in the three Tests so far.
Apart from Rohit and Pujara, no other batter in the top five has managed to cross the 50-run mark even once in the series. Virat Kohli has looked good but has managed to find ways to get out. Shreyas Iyer's ultra-aggressive approach has not yet bore results.
"We didn't bat well enough in the last Test, that's why we didn't win. Not having enough runs on the game is probably what cost us the game. Toss is not a factor at all in this series. You've got to trust your skills.
"Leave the conditions aside, every Test match you play, you've got to find ways to score runs, that is the talk within the group. How much is the pitch turning, how the conditions are we are trying to keep those thoughts away. We have to find our way to score runs on whatever pitches we get. You can't change a lot of things in three weeks, so you just need to adapt and change your mindset keeping your batting approach in mind. More than skills, it's how you mentally want to tackle the opposition bowlers," Rohit said.