It may have been the same old narrative for India in an ICC final, but what made this defeat notable was the manner in which they were eliminated, particularly in the second innings when The Oval’s conditions may have been the most conducive to batting during the Test match. Thus, Cheteshwar Pujara uppercut one right into the keeper’s hands, Rohit Sharma ended up sweeping a one that was too full, and Virat Kohli once more pursued a wide ball.
Rohit defended the Indian hitters after their 209-run defeat to Australia at The Oval, saying that their failure was not down to a “lack of concentration” but rather to a desire to “play in a different way” that didn’t exactly pan out in this particular instance.
“We have competed in several ICC competitions, but we have yet to prevail. So, Rohit stated, “Our objective is to play differently and attempt to do something differently.
“There was no lapse in focus. The guys are free to play, we’ve informed them. And if that’s the case, strike. It has an easy message. We don’t want to play under pressure in any type of cricket, including Test, T20, or one-day cricket. Looking at the innings, you can see that Gill and I put all of our effort into hitting, playing, and applying pressure to them when the game was in the second inning. We scored 60 runs in just 10 overs as a result. But if you play with that attitude, you probably will succeed. Then come the remarks and the mentions of attention span violations. There is no attentional slippage. Simply said, we’d prefer to play differently. We would want to try something new.
“Test cricket is played in a different way these days now. And that’s how we want to play as well. And it was a good pitch. You could play the shots that you want to,” Rohit said. “Of course, keeping in mind, you know, if somebody is bowling a really good spell, you try and respect that. But otherwise, you have to try and do something different just to break the bowler’s rhythm.
“And that is what Travis Head did. He came and played some shots. And he really got them out of that discomfort zone… We really thought we were, you know, quite in the game and then the way Travis Head came and played, he completely took the game away from us. And that is what we want to do as well. When you know the pitch is good, sometimes you have to let your instinct take those calls in the middle.
“And yeah, I don’t think it was a concentration lapse or anything like that. It’s just, sometimes guys feel that they’re comfortable playing certain shots and they’re allowed to go and play those shots.
“When the World Cup will be held in October, we will try to play in a different way. We will try to give people freedom and not think that we have to win this or that match. We have been thinking that this match is important, this event is important and things are not happening. So obviously We will have to think differently and do things differently. Our message and focus will be on trying to do something different.”
After the game, India coach Rahul Dravid told Star Sports that the pitch “wasn’t a 469 wicket” and that his team paid for a poor showing in the opening two sessions of Day 1. However, Rohit believed that the team’s veteran hitters, who had competed at the highest level in England previously, fell short and lost them the championship.
“When you have in your top six, you know, five or six batters who have quite experience played in these conditions before and couldn’t go on to get big runs and that is what probably cost us the game,” Rohit said. “But yeah, I mean, look, I don’t want to be too critical about it. The reason I say that is because when we were here last time, a lot of the senior batters actually put their hand up and got us ahead in the series. I mean, things like this can happen. We’ve had really good outings in the last two years. Whether we played in Australia or England, but yeah, like you said, this one-off game, if you’re mentally not there, you can lose a game. You know, and that is exactly what happened.”
India suffered its second consecutive defeat in the World Test Championship final. Both were conducted immediately after the IPL, which, to be fair, has not provided India with sufficient preparation time.
Would a three-Test WTC final make for a better option? “I would love that. But is there a time?” Rohit asked. “That’s the big question. But honestly, in a big event like this, you need to have fair opportunities for both the teams. You know, a three-match series would be nice, but it’s about finding that window where it can fit in. In an event like this, you work hard for two years and then you have only one shot at it. So, you cannot get into that momentum that you need in Test cricket. You know, Test cricket is all about finding that rhythm, finding that momentum as well. So, I think, yeah if in the next cycle, if it is possible, a three-match series would be ideal.”
