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Rohit Sharma accepted his team produced a poor show against Australia in Melbourne that resulted in a crushing defeat in the 4th Test.
Rohit Sharma’s own form with the bat has been quite disappointing. (AP Photo)
Another dramatic batting collapse has ended India’s hopes of winning another Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Australian soil. In fact, they are on verge of losing the series for the first time since 2014 with Pat Cummins-led Australia taking a 2-1 lead with a Test to go. Chasing 340, India first lost their top-three for not much before Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant joined forces to revive the innings and raise hopes of a draw. However, soon after the third session got underway, part-timer Travis Head struck to dislodge Pant and it triggered a collapse but from this, there was no recovery.
India were skittled for 155 in 79.1 overs as Australia won the Boxing Day Test by 184 runs on the fifth and final day. India captain Rohit Sharma said the performance is “mentally disturbing”.
“It is mentally disturbing when you can’t do what you have come to do,” Rohit told reporters in Melbourne. “It is pretty disappointing. There are ways to win games and we fell short in finding ways to win the game here. We wanted to fight till the end and unfortunately we couldn’t do it.”
“We had Australia 90 for 6. We know things can get tough, but we want to play tough cricket from hard situations. But we were not good enough. I went back to my room and thought about what else we could have done as a team. But we threw everything we had, they fought hard, especially that last-wicket partnership, which probably cost us the game there,” he added.
The target might have achieved daunting but Rohit said the team was playing with a positive mindset to chase it down. However, with the top-order failing again, it became quite difficult.
“We knew 340 wasn’t going to be easy. We tried to set a platform and keep wickets in hand for the last two sessions, but they bowled perfectly as well. We wanted to go for the target, but we didn’t set the platform from our side,” Rohit said.
Jasprit Bumrah, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Nitish Reddy were the bright spots for India in the contest. While Bumrah took nine wickets in the match, Jaiswal scored 82 and 84 in the two innings. On the other hand, Reddy showed promise with a fighting century in the first innings that kept India in the game.
Rohit said Nitish has the technique to succeed in Test cricket.
“He’s (Rohit) coming here for the first time, these conditions can get really tough, but he showed great character, solid technique as well. He’s got everything to be successful at this level, I hope he goes from strength to strength, and he’s got all the backing from the team as well,” he said.
- Location :
Melbourne (Australia)
