Indian national cricket team captain Rohit Sharma has finally opened up about the struggles of young batsmen Yashavi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Rohit Sharma said that Yashavi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant are fully aware of what Team India needs from them in the series and the management does not want to complicate things for them.
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Rishabh Pant knows what to do – Rohit Sharma
Wicket-keeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has not been at his best in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series against Australia. He failed to repeat his heroics from the previous tour Down Under and scored 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 right form alongside him and has performed admirably in the recent home Test matches for India.
The India captain added that Pant should not be judged on the basis of his failures in three Test matches and was hopeful that he would return to his best in the remainder of the five-match Test series.
“There is no pressure. He has only played three Tests here. He has scored runs in India. He has been in good form. If two or three Tests go up and down, a lot of the umpiring is not right. He knows what he wants.” “What needs to be done,” Rohit said.
“Look, as I told you, all these young men – Rishabh, Gill, Jaiswal, all these young men are in the same boat.”
“Our job here is to keep talking to them about small, small things like match awareness. I don't think we need to tell them more and complicate things. Rishabh Pant knows what he has to do. He himself has a lot of expectations from him,” Rohit Sharma added: “He is working hard and I hope To succeed in the last two matches.”
Look, Jaiswal, he's 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 struggled in other matches.
While talking about Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma said that the left-handed batsman is on his first tour of Australia and burdening him with “too many ideas” would not 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's coming here for the first time. He's already shown what he's capable of. When you have a guy like that in your team, you don't want to mess too much with his mentality. Let him be as free as possible.”
“We try not to burden him with too many thoughts in terms of his batting. He understands his batting more than any of us. That's the way he played his cricket, scoring all his runs. We want to make sure he goes out there and plays his game with freedom,” Rohit said. He has the ability to play all types of games, whether it is a holding game or controlling the game.”
Talking about Gill, he is of quality – Rohit Sharma
Shubman Gill, India's No. 3, 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 scored just 60 runs at an average of 20 runs.
Rohit Sharma also spoke about Shubman Gill and said that he is a good batsman and needs to be supported with a clear message from the management. The leader added that Gill needs to make sure it starts well and then turns it into big results.
“Talking about Gill, he has quality. It's just about supporting that quality and making sure we give him clear messages. 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 to the 30s and 40s, you turn that into big runs. Getting in is the hardest part here, so when you get in, you have to try to score big runs,” he added.
