“The reason I took the decision to change the order is because we want results, we want success,” Rohit said on Thursday. “And those two guys at the top, just watching this Test match, they batted brilliantly. I was at home with my newborn in my arms and I was watching KL bat. It was brilliant to watch, to be honest.
“And I felt that there is no need to change that now. Maybe in the future things will be different, I don’t know. So, based on what has happened and what KL has shown outside of India, he probably deserves that place at this point.
“It’s something that has given us success in the first Test. Having that great partnership with Jaiswal on the other side probably made us win the Test.”
Rahul may not have scored a century but he was excellent in both the innings in Perth. Jaiswal made a century, recovering from a duck in the first innings, and was feeling so good in the middle that he was happy to point out that Mitchell Starc was moving too slowly and that Nathan Lyon might be a legend, but he was getting old. . India made 487 for 6 declared and won by 295 runs.
“When you come to a place like Perth and get around 500 runs, it’s a big achievement,” Rohit said. “What I saw from the outside seemed brilliant to me and there was no need to change anything.”
Just as he was finishing his response, Rohit offered a window into how the Indian team wants to operate, whether it wins, loses or draws. They don’t seem to bow to height as much as they have previously been perceived to do. Here, for example, the captain gave way to Rahul, who played only one of the three matches in his previous Test series.
“It was actually pretty easy for me,” Rohit said. “Personally it wasn’t easy, but for the team it made a lot of sense.”
Team first is the philosophy that drove India to choose the XI they played in Perth because it meant leaving out two men with over 800 Test wickets combined.
“We have seen what he [Washington Sundar] I can do it with the ball, with the bat. He has a solid technique to play anywhere in the world. And when these guys are on the team, it gives you confidence.”
“I certainly see them playing a very important role in the rest of the series,” Rohit said of Ashwin and Jadeja, “because what they bring to the table can never be discounted.” And about Washington, he said: “We’ve seen what he can do with the ball, with the bat. He has a solid technique to play anywhere in the world. And when those guys are on the team, you gain confidence. And with Washy especially , now I just hope that he stays away from injuries and doesn’t get injured because a player like him is always valuable for our team. [He] It gives us that balance, that depth that a team always requires. So with Washy, I can see your graph from here only going up.”
“Today’s youngsters are fearless. They don’t carry any baggage. Jaiswal, Gill, Pant… are cricketers from another generation. When we first came to Australia, the only thing on our mind was How to Score Runs We would put extra pressure on ourselves, but every generation is different. Today’s players are bold and brave, and perhaps this is working in their favor.
“Every time I talk to them, they only have one thing in mind: how to win the match. They don’t think about how they would score a hundred or two hundreds. When you start thinking like that, individual performances take care of themselves because if you have to win, you will have to win.” They have to perform, and that happens automatically. If your main objective is how to win matches, series, tournaments, then the great streaks that these guys make are secondary.
“If they can’t contribute with the bat, they think about what they can do in fielding or bowling. So guys nowadays think like that, which is a very, very good thing. I don’t know if anyone talks about it. “But this “It’s their natural mentality when they come on tour: their mentality is how to win the game.”