The Indian cricket team is due to play Bangladesh in two Test matches, starting on September 19 at Chepauk. The Bangla Tigers have come to India on the back of a historic 2-0 Test series win in Pakistan.
Two days ahead of the opening Test, India skipper Rohit Sharma addressed a press conference, where he was asked a bizarre question on whether the pressure would be off the team now that they have broken the longstanding ICC trophy jinx.
Rohit was left perplexed by the question as he asked, “So what are you saying, winning this Test match is not important?”
After clarifying with the reporter, the captain responded, Rohit believes that even if they fail to win a bilateral series, there will be a lot of chatter as the Indian team is judged differently as compared to other countries.
“Again we know how it works. The talks will start happening around how we lost the bilateral series. We shouldn’t have lost and all of that. See with India it’s a different ball game compared to the others,” he stated.
“It’s not how it works possibly for the other countries. I don’t know I’m not too sure. I’m an Indian cricketer I can only talk about India,” he added.
According to Rohit, each and every game becomes important when they represent the country and as captain, he doesn’t plan on putting the foot off the pedal.
“Every series that we play, every tournament that we play becomes so important. Not just for you all but for us also. We want to win. There’s no way in my mind that we won one trophy so we can just sit back, relax and enjoy. It doesn’t work like that,” he remarked.
India will play a total of 10 Tests in the next five months. The series against Bangladesh will be followed by three Tests against New Zealand at home in October-November and then five Test matches as part of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
However, the Indian captain clarified that they would not be looking too far ahead. “Every Test match is a big one. Let me start with that. At the end of the day, you’re playing for your country. Right? There’s no dress rehearsal kind of stuff that is happening here,” he said.
Rohit remains focused on the World Test Championship and believes the points table to be still open despite Team India currently on top.
“Every game that you play is important and every game becomes important because of what is at stake. In the World Test Championship, the table is quite wide open and you want to win every game. Doesn’t matter where we play in 2 months, we want to win here, win this Test match. So I think we have to focus on winning this series and the Test matches. So rather than looking too far ahead, I think it’s important we start after a long time,” he said.
(With CricketNext Inputs)
