India National Cricket Team skipper Rohit Sharma has finally opened up on the struggles of the young batters Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Rishabh Pant in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Rohit Sharma said that Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Rishabh Pant are fully aware of what Team India needs from them in the series and the management doesn’t want to complicate things for them.
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Rishabh Pant knows what he has to do – Rohit Sharma
The wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has not been at his best in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series against Australia. He has failed to replicate his heroics from the previous tour Down Under and has registered just 96 runs in 5 innings at an average of 19.20.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Rohit Sharma said that Rishabh Pant has the form on his side and performed brilliantly in the recent home Test matches for India.
The India captain added that Pant shouldn’t be judged on the basis of his failures in three Test matches and was hopeful of him returning to his best in the remainder of the five-match Test series.
“There is no pressure. He has played just three Tests here. He has scored runs in India. He has been in good form. If two or three Tests go up and down, too much of judgement is not right. He knows what he has to do,” Rohit said.
“See, as I told you, all these youngsters – Rishabh, Gill, Jaiswal, all these youngsters are in the same boat.”
“Our job here is to keep talking them about small, small things like match awareness. I don’t think we need to tell them more and complicate stuff. Rishabh Pant knows what he has to do. He himself has a lot of expectations from him. He is working hard. I hope he clicks in the last two matches,” Rohit Sharma added.
Look, Jaiswal, he is coming here for the first time – Rohit Sharma
Opening batsman, Yashasvi Jaiswal is the third-highest run-scorer in the ongoing Test series with 193 runs in 6 innings at an average of 38.60. However, out of 193, 161 runs came off his bat in one innings in Perth and he has struggled in other games.
While talking about Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma said that the left-handed batter is on his first Australia tour and burdening him with ‘too many thoughts’ wouldn’t be the right thing to do.
He further stated that Jaiswal has already shown his potential and the team management wants him to bat freely.
“Look, Jaiswal, he is coming here for the first time. He has already shown what he is capable of. when you have a guy like that in your team, you don’t want to tamper too much with his mindset. Let him be as free as possible.
“We try not to overburden him with too many thoughts regarding his batting. He understands his batting more than any one of us. That’s how he has played his cricket, scored all of his runs. We want to ensure he goes out there and plays his game freely. He has got the ability to play all sorts of games — whether it’s the holding game or dominating the game,” Rohit said.
Talking about Gill, he is quality – Rohit Sharma
India’s No.3 Shubman Gill missed the first Test and since returning to the playing XI, he has shown some promise but has failed to score big. In 3 innings, he has scored just 60 runs at an average of 20.
Rohit Sharma further talked about Shubman Gill and said that he is a quality batsman and he needs to be backed with a clear message from the management. The skipper added that Gill needs to ensure he gets off to good starts and then converts them into big scores.
“Talking about Gill, he is quality. It’s just about backing that quality and making sure we give clear messaging to him. Like Jaiswal, we don’t want to complicate too many things with him. He understands his batting really well. He knows how to score big runs.
“It’s just about making sure that when you get 30s, 40s, you have to convert that into big runs. Getting in is the toughest part here, so when you get in, you have to try and score big runs,” he added.