Rishabh needs to understand what is required of him: Rohit Sharma

Pant’s ill-timed lap shot in the first innings and mindless slog in the second essay came at crucial junctures and handed Australia the upper hand. His first innings dismissal also invited the wrath of Sunil Gavaskar, who shouted “stupid, stupid and stupid” on air.

However, even in one of the most toughest times, Rohit was unintentionally funny when asked about Pant’s dismissals.

“Today? Or the day before?,” he asked at first.

“There hasn’t been any discussion about today. Obviously, you know, we lost the game. Everybody is disappointed about how things actually panned out. We certainly didn’t think of this result. There is no doubt about that,” he said, trying to gather his thoughts.

“Look Rishabh Pant, he needs to understand what is required of him. More than any one of us telling him, you know, it’s about him understanding and figuring out what is the right way to go about it,” Rohit added, refusing to be critical of one of his biggest match-winners.

The skipper acknowledged that Pant’s high-risk methods had brought him great success in the past but wanted him to strike a balance.

“It’s just about situation as well. Certain situation of the game where if there is a risk percentage, do you want to take that risk, do you want to let the opposition come back into the game, those are the things he needs to figure out himself.

“See I know Rishabh for a very long time and I understand his cricket as well. In the past also we have had a lot of conversation.

“In terms of conversation, there is no way I can say that I’ve not had a chat with him or he doesn’t understand what the team expects. It’s just that fine line between telling him not to do those things or telling him.” India now trail 1-2 in the five-match series with the fourth Test in Sydney starting on January 3.

Dropping Gill isn’t a personal decision

The move to drop Shubman Gill, who looked the best Indian batter in both innings of the Pink Ball Test in Adelaide, to accommodate all-rounder Washington Sundar and add lower middle-order batting depth, had attracted criticism but Rohit clarified that the decision was not his alone.

“Look, I had a chat with him. There’s no way when you’re leaving someone out, for whatever reason it is, you will have a chat. And the chat with him was clearly he was not dropped. We just wanted to have that extra bit of cushion in the bowling,” Rohit said.

“Hence, we opted for an all-rounder, which shouldn’t weaken our batting line-up. Compromising a batter for a bowler was not something that I wanted to do.

“We wanted to bat as deep as possible and along with that, have the same combination to have a bowling attack which can take 20 wickets. We ended up compromising him unfortunately.

“Of course, everyone has to understand that because eventually we don’t make personal decisions. It is in the best interest of the team, we want to put the team ahead. You make that decision and that’s what we do,” Rohit concluded.