Melbourne: Rohit Sharma was calmer on Monday. Disappointed, but calmer. Much less emotional than he was when he had berated Yashasvi Jaiswal on Day 4 of the Boxing Day Test or when he had seen Rishabh Pant’s dismissal on Day 3, or witnessed the mix-up between Virat Kohli and Jaiswal on Day 2.
A series of missed opportunities marked the fourth Test for India; a series of misadventures threw them off and finally with a draw in sight, they lost their nerve. They collapsed and Australia clinched the kind of win that can often break the opposition’s spirit.
At tea, India were in with a chance to earn a draw that would have felt like a win. They were 112/3 with both, Jaiswal and Pant, having got their eye in. The message then was to be realistic. To play the match situation.
“Obviously when you come here chasing 340 in mind, we did that the last time around (at the Gabba in 2021), so there’s no way that we were not thinking of the target, but to get that target you need to lay the foundation for the other batters to come and play the way they want to play. We’ve got guys in our team who can, you know, take the game till the end. But unfortunately, Rishabh got out and we lost a couple of wickets right after that. And then, it we knew that it was always going to be tough. You want to chase the target, you want to be positive and stuff like that, but you got to be realistic as well sometimes,” Rohit told reporters.
It would be harsh to blame Pant alone when the top-order failed to get going once again but the fact of the matter is that during the 88-run stand with Jaiswal, the left-hander had played his hand to perfection for most part. He had kept the match situation in mind all the time. Then, for just one moment, he reverted to his usual self and it spelt doom for India.
The ill-advised pull off Travis Head saw him caught in the deep. He had made a 104-ball 30, his slowest Test innings in which he has played at least 30 balls. It was just what India needed until it wasn’t.
“Rishabh Pant, he needs to understand what is required from himself more than any one of us telling him,” India’s skipper said. “It’s about him understanding and figuring out what is the right way to go about it.
“In the past, he’s given us a lot of success doing what he does. So, as a captain there is a kind of mixed reaction to that. Sometimes you want to back that thought of him playing the way he plays and sometimes when things don’t look good, it frustrates everyone.
“But that is what it is, that’s the reality. It’s the success and the failure. There needs to be a balance about it.
“As a captain, it’s very hard to have conversations when (his aggression) has given him a lot of success as well. It’s about him figuring out what is the right way to do things.
“It’s about the situation as well. (There are) certain situations of the game where, if there is a risk percentage (to consider), do you want to take that risk? Do you want to let the opposition back into the game?
“Those are the things he needs to figure out himself.
“I’ve known Rishabh for a very long time, and I understand his cricket as well … the things he does gives him results as well. It’s just that fine line between telling him not to do those things or telling him to do those things.”
India’s other major worry going forward will be the workload Jasprit Bumrah has had to shoulder. The team management chose to go with six bowlers but they only really used four. Is there a danger of over-bowling his biggest weapon?
“Yeah, there is,” said Sharma. “To be honest, he’s bowled a lot of overs. But again, every Test match we play, we keep that in mind, the workloads of all the bowlers. But again, if somebody is in such great form, you want to try and maximise that how much ever you can and that is what we’ve been trying to do with Bumrah. But there comes a time where you need to step back a little bit and give him that little bit of extra breather as well. So, we’ve been very careful, I’ve been very careful.”
That said, India’s chances in the World Test Championship have taken a hit as a result of the defeat at Melbourne, but there will be a chance to retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy with a win at Sydney, venue for the final Test starting on January 3.
“We had chances in all four matches. If we leave the first match (in Perth), because we lost that match in Adelaide, in Brisbane (draw) and here, we had chances to do well, to take opportunities, but we didn’t take those opportunities.”
Come the fifth Test, the Indian skipper will hope that doesn’t remain the case.
“A drawn series will be nice.”
