“No point playing them” – Rohit Sharma to youngsters lacking hunger to play Test cricket
Rohit Sharma's message comes after Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer failed to turn up for Ranji matches.
Rohit Sharma couldn’t be any happier upon seeing his team defy the odds and come through with flying colours against the Ben Stokes-led England cricket team. The tourists came here with an intent to imply their dominance and they did so by taking the first lead in the series. Nevertheless, their bazball approach lost its sheen as the series progressed.
In reality, they couldn’t just keep up with India’s pace and went on to lose a hat-trick of games. India won the series by 3-1, with the final Test scheduled to be played on March 7. After the fourth Test match, plenty of questions were asked to Indian skipper Rohit Sharma at the post-match press conference in Ranchi.
However, one question that we saw it coming was about the mindset of youngsters who recently opted out of the Ranji Trophy matches. Ishan Kishan didn’t feature in Ranji games despite the Indian think-tank’s instruction whereas Shreyas Iyer pulled out of Mumbai’s match despite the National Cricket Academy (NCA) mentioned that the cricket doesn’t have injuries.
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Rohit Sharma wants players to utilize opportunities
The Indian captain didn’t keep mum when he was asked about hunger in youngsters to play Test cricket. The senior pro emphasized that the team is willing to give chances to only those who have the hunger to play Tests, before adding that there is literally no point in giving opportunities to the players who lack the hunger.
“We will give opportunities to only those who are hungry. There’s point in playing those who don’t have the hunger. I don’t see anyone in the team here who is not hungry. All the boys who are here and also those who are not, they all want to play. But the thing with Test cricket is that you get very few opportunities. If you don’t utilise them, they go away,” the 36-year-old echoed.
As many as four youngsters namely Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan and Akash Deep made their debut for India in the ongoing series. While Patidar failed to make his presence count, Jurel stole the show in the fourth Test by scoring a match-defining 90 in the first innings followed by an unbeaten 39* in the second innings.
On the contrary, Sarfaraz Khan performed quite well in the third Test in Rajkot wherein he scored 62 in the first innings and 68* in the second innings whereas Akash Deep who made his debut in the fourth Test had a decent outing, taking 3 wickets to his name.
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