India captain Rohit Sharma shared his thoughts on the upcoming ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2023) Final against Australia, which begins on June 7 at the Oval in London in an event on Sunday.
Talking about the playing conditions in England, Rohit said that one never feels "in" as a batter in English conditions but somehow develops an intuition as to when to attack the opposition bowling. He further added that there is no substitute for hard grind on English tracks.
"Look, I think, in England in general, it's pretty challenging conditions for batters. As long as you are prepared to have a good grind, you can have success,” the India captain said during an ICC event 'Afternoon With Test Legends'.
Rohit Sharma had scored his only Test hundred outside the Indian subcontinent in England on the 2021 tour here at the Oval, shared his experience while seated alongside Pat Cummins, Ross Taylor, and Ian Bell.
"One thing I realized in 2021, is you are never in (set) and the weather keeps changing. You need to keep concentrating for longer periods of time and you will get that intuition when it's time to take on the bowlers. More importantly, you need to be out there and you have got to understand what your strengths are," the skipper said.
Rohit feels that knowing the scoring pattern of former players, who have had success at the Oval, won't be a bad idea. He is known to be a very stats-driven captain for both India and Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
"I am not going to try and emulate them (successful players) but it would be a bit nice to know their pattern of scoring. What I have found out at Oval is that the square boundaries are pretty quick,” he added.
Having just come from the IPL 2023, Rohit said that it is always a challenge for him to tweak his technique according to formats and he enjoys the switch.
"That (change of formats) certainly has been the challenging factor. You know you play multi-format. Mentally you have to be very adaptable and tweak your technique. You need to be talking to yourself and get mentally ready. A lot of our younger guys haven't done that. A lot of us are doing it for many years and bringing out the best performances," he added.
Despite his success in ODI and T20 formats, the 35-year-old Indian captain said Test cricket remains the ultimate format.
"It keeps challenging you. You want to be in these situations. You look forward and as a person, it brings the best out of you. In the last 3-4 years in Test cricket, we have had good success. Now it is about crossing that final hurdle and giving that confidence to youngsters so that they can play in the way they want to play," he concluded.
(PTI inputs)
