New Delhi (Nilesh Tiwari), December 05: Ahead of the pink-ball Test match of the Board Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, Indian team captain Rohit Sharma held a press conference and answered media questions in Australia (Adelaide).
KL Rahul will open alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal in the second Test match against Australia in Adelaide, according to Rohit Sharma, who returned as captain after missing the Perth Test because of the birth of his baby. Rahul cemented his place at the top of the order with an outstanding opening partnership of 201 runs with Jaiswal in the second innings of the first Test.
On Opening position: “I’ll bat somewhere in the middle”.
Why is he playing in the middle order?
KL Rahul was included purely with an ambition of achieving wins and results. For me, watching KL Rahul bat while I was at home with my newborn, there was no reason to change that. But it was not an easy decision for me. But it had to be done for the principle of the team.
For Ashwin and for Jadeja:
It is never easy to drop players like Jadeja and Ashwin. They are so much experienced and I strongly believe they surely will contribute very much to the rest of the matches in the series. They are indeed gifted players.
On the youngsters like Jaiswal, Pant and Gill:
These players, Jaiswal, Pant, and Gill are from a younger generation. When I was coming to Australia, I used to think of how I’m going to score. These people just want to win contests. The first target is to win the game.
On pink ball test – Adelaide:
We are determined to come and change the entire concept because we know how we have performed in the previous occasions as far as the Pink Ball Test is concerned in Adelaide.
Australia’s squad for BGT 2024:
Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc
India squad for Border-Gavaskar Trophy
Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Travelling reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed.
