India captain Rohit Sharma has admitted that his side was ready to suffer a first-innings collapse to ensure a result in their favour during the second Test against Bangladesh in Kanpur.
The second and third days were washed out however the home team still managed to secure an impressive seven-wicket victory on the fifth day of the Kanpur Test, largely due to Rohit’s bold approach.
India bundled out Bangladesh for 146 before lunch on the fifth and final day and, needing 95 for victory, reached 98-3 in just 104 balls in the second session.
“We had to think a lot [about] how the game can keep moving forward once we lost two-and-a-half days,” Rohit said after the match.
“When we came on day four, we thought, okay, let’s try and get them out as quickly as possible and then see with the bat what we can do.”
Rohit Sharma revealed the strategy behind the aggressive batting in India’s first innings was to get more overs so that they could bowl out Bangladesh in the second innings.
“Once they had got 230-odd, we said it was not about the runs we get but it was about the overs we wanted to bowl at them,” he added.
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“It meant we had to try and up the run-rate and score as many as possible because the pitch did not have much for the bowlers.”
The Indian captain then praised his bowlers for their brilliance on the fourth and fifth days, despite a lack of support from the pitch.
“To make a game out of that pitch was a super effort from the bowlers, and then for the batters to buy into that thought of going and getting the runs as quickly as possible,” he mentioned.
He appreciated his batters as well for playing according to the plan, however, he also acknowledged the risk of getting bowled out while playing attacking cricket, while admitting that they were ready to take the chance
“It was a risk we were willing to take because when you’re trying to bat like that, it is very easy that you can get bundled out for a low score as well,” Rohit added.
“But we were ready with that factor as well, that even if we get all out for 100-150, we wanted to give ourselves a chance to be in the game and try and get a result.”
Notably, the series victory extended India’s lead at the top of the World Test Championship (WTC) rankings ahead of Australia in second.
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