India ensured its glittering home Test record remained intact, after it beat England by five wickets at the JSCA Stadium here on Monday, taking an unsurpassable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
India last lost a Test series at home in 2012, to England. It has since whipped up a series-win streak, which now counts to 17.
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“In our opinion, when we come to play any series as cricketers our job is to win it. Home and away, you can differentiate between the two. But if you don’t win at home a lot is spoken. Whichever team you play against, whenever you play, a Test series win is a Test series win,” said Indian captain Rohit Sharma at the post-match press conference.
Rohit credited the way his side has rallied, after losing the first Test in Hyderabad, despite the absence of many first-team players like Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, and Mohammed Shami.
“We had a lot of players missing. These guys who have come in have done the job perfectly, they have taken the responsibility perfectly, and I mean, you can take a lot of pride in performances like this with inexperienced players,” said Rohit.
The Indian skipper also refused to term the Ranchi pitch a difficult one, pointing out how well batters like Joe Root and Dhruv Jurel played on the surface.
“One guy made a hundred, one a 90 and two made 50s. How a wicket looks like doesn’t matter. What happens on it matters. It’s Indian nature that the ball spins and it remains low. This has been the case for 50 years. It’s not that the batters couldn’t bat, and bowlers couldn’t bowl. In fact, our bowlers were very happy to bowl on this wicket.
“Even for batters, if you applied yourselves, making big runs wasn’t difficult. The way Root batted, made a 100. Jurel played in such a situation for the first time and he made runs. More than the runs, see how many balls he played. If you can survive more than 150 balls, there is nothing left [more challenging],” added Rohit.
Rohit was quick to credit the way England pushed his side, with the visiting team holding the advantage on several occasions in the Test series.
“We knew before the series started that it was going to be a challenging series, and England was going to play slightly different cricket than the rest of the teams who have come here, and to be honest, they have found some success as well, in playing that way, but I thought we were quite composed in what we wanted to do as a batting unit, as a bowling unit, and I thought, in the end, we were rewarded with that,” pointed out Rohit.
Rohit also spoke about the gruelling nature of Test cricket and the need to savour such series wins, while adding that the team hasn’t discussed its plan going into the final Test in Dharamsala.
“It is quite pleasing to win, and it doesn’t come often. It’s gruelling. Playing in a five-match series is not easy. That’s what Test cricket is all about. You find your way and keep fighting, whatever contest you are in, with the bat or the ball, you have to do that consistently for maybe five to seven weeks. So, it’s quite pleasing,” said Rohit.
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