The regular Test captain of India, Rohit Sharma, was criticized for his defensive captaincy during the second day of the second Test match of the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 at the Adelaide Oval, where they went on to get a ten-wicket defeat against Australia, who have now leveled the series at 1-1.
Questions were asked, and loud voices were raised over the leadership of Rohit Sharma, who used just four over of the premier pacer, Jasprit Bumrah, on the first session of the second day. The pacer brought the first wicket of the Australian innings in the form of Usman Khawaja before sending back Nathan McSweeney early in the morning of the second day.
Most of the fans and pundits predicted that when Travis Head walked out to bat with the fall of Steve Smith, who was caught down the leg in the bowling of Bumrah, the Indian captain might be a little more aggressive with his captaincy.
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But that wasn’t the case, and it left the game flowing with the pace. Bumrah finished with four wickets in the first innings, besides giving away 61 runs in 23 overs at an economy rate of 2.7. The others were nailed around the ground. Mohammad Siraj, who claimed four wickets too, was bashed for 98 runs in 24.3 overs, while Harshit Rana was drilled for around six an over without any reward.
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Rohit Sharma addressed the criticism and explained it would be impractical to defend the Ahmedabad-born pacer all the time for bringing them back in the contest.
“Right now, I won’t be thinking about Sydney at all. We need to think about what we need to do in Brisbane. And, look, it’s a great thing to have someone like Bumrah, but he is not going to be the only one who is going to do the job all the time. We saw Siraj, along with Bumrah, when he got those four wickets, the responsibility was shared.” The Nagpur-born expressed at the post-match press conference after their ten-wicket defeat.
One of the issues for the tourists in the contest was their poor batting performance in both the innings. Having won the toss and decided to bat first, the two-time runners-up from the World Test Championship (WTC) was folded up for just 180 in the first innings before crumbling for 175 in the second.
“That’s what we look forward to. Bumrah will not get wickets at times, and the other guys need to step in. That’s how we talk in the batting group as well, ‘x, y, z’ would not be scoring runs all the time. Everyone in the team understands that.” Rohit Sharma pointed out in the presser.
“It’s just not about one individual or two; if you want to win a Test or a series, everyone has to share the responsibility, put their hand up, and get the job done. That’s something I have always seen in this team.” The Indian captain highlighted.
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The workload is something that they had kept a close eye on regarding Jasprit Bumrah, who bowled 24 overs in the game. He is likely to play the next day at the Gabba in Brisbane, which starts after a week’s break.
“I keep talking to him (Bumrah) during his spells, asking how his body is holding up. It’s a five-Test series, and we want Bumrah to be fresh and play all five matches. It’s important to analyze these things; workload management is crucial.” Rohit Sharma shed light, besides asking the other bowlers, like Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, and Nitish Reddy, to share the responsibility of the side.
