“If you let him be, he'll do his job” - Rohit Sharma reflects on Sarfaraz Khan’s impressive Test debut
Team India captain Rohit Sharma has candidly admitted that he hasn’t seen Sarfaraz Khan bat a lot. He, however, added that he has come to know from players in Mumbai that the middle-order batter is someone who will do his job because he has the experience.
With KL Rahul being ruled out of the third Test against England in Rajkot, Sarfaraz was handed his much-awaited Test debut. The latter grabbed his opportunity with both hands, smashing 62 in the first innings before being run out in unfortunate fashion. In the second innings as well, he contributed an unbeaten 68 off 72 balls.
At the post-match presentation following India’s record 434-run win over England in Rajkot, Rohit shared his thoughts on Sarfaraz’s impressive Test debut.
“I haven't seen Sarfaraz bat that much. But all the people I've heard from, the players who are from Mumbai, (that) he's made runs in a lot of difficult situations for Mumbai. He's hungry for runs and for the last 4-5 years, he's continuously made runs in domestic cricket, so (that means) he's doing something good,” the Indian captain said.
On whether any specific instructions were given to the debutant, Rohit said:
“We didn't discuss any plans with him. Because I know that if you let him be, he'll do his job, which I've heard from the players from Mumbai.”
While Sarfaraz made a terrific Test debut, another young Mumbai batter Yashasvi Jaiswal also continued his tremendous form, smashing his second double-hundred in as many Tests.
Refusing to comment too much on the left-hander, Rohit said:
“I won't say anything about Jaiswal now, everyone is talking about him. Let him play. He's playing well and (that) is good for us. He's in good form. I'm not going to say much more than that.”
In seven Tests, Jaiswal has scored 861 runs at an average of 71.75, with three hundreds and two fifties.
“He's batting really well” - Rohit on batting promotion for Ravindra Jadeja
While the young guns did a tremendous job for India in Rajkot, homeboy and seasoned all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was the Player of the Match for scoring a hundred and claiming a five-fer.
Batting first, India were in trouble at 33/3 when the hosts decided to promote Jadeja to No. 5. He scored 112, adding 204 for the fourth wicket with Rohit (131).
Opening up on the decision to promote Jadeja in the first innings, the Indian captain explained:
“If you see the past couple of years, he's actually come out and scored some crucial runs for us. Whether it's in India or outside India as well. He's batting really well and the confidence is there with the bat, which is why we thought of sending him up the order as well (in the first innings).”
During the Test, Jadeja also became the third Indian after Kapil Dev and Ravichandran Ashwin to achieve the double of 3,000 runs and 250-plus wickets in the red-ball format.