The way Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma protect their teams from “outside noise” is one thing they have in common as captains. Both Rohit and Kohli respond to criticism from the media, experts, and past cricketers seriously. Another similar instance was the press conference held prior to the fourth Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against Australia, which would decide the series.

After winning the first two Tests in Nagpur and Delhi, Rohit Sharma was questioned about if the Indian squad could have been a little “overconfident,” which ultimately cost them the prior Test in Indore.

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It’s About Being Ruthless, Not Overconfident: Rohit Sharma

The remarks were made by former India head coach Ravi Shastri as he was providing commentary in Indore. “This is what a little complacency, a little bit of overconfidence can do. When you take things for granted, you drop guard and this game will bring you down,” when Australia defeated India on the third morning of the Test match, Shastri stated in a commentary.

The former all-rounder was referring to several of the Indian hitters’ first innings swings. India were knocked out for 109, which significantly favoured Australia.

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“I think it was a combination of all these things when you actually cast your mind back to the first innings, see some of the shots played, see some of the over-eagerness to try and dominate in these conditions. You reflect back, take a step back or two to analyse,” Shastri added.

The Indian captain “rubbed out” the assertions, claiming that their “ruthlessness” should not be interpreted as arrogance.

“When you win two games, if the people outside are feeling we are overconfident, that’s absolutely rubbish. You want to do your best in all the games. You don’t want to stop by winning just two matches,” Rohit Sharma said in Ahmedabad on the eve of the Test match.

Even using Shastri’s name and calling the former coach an “outsider,” the India skipper did not hesitate to use the terminology.

“All these guys, when they talk about being overconfident, especially when they are not part of the dressing room, they don’t know what sort of conversations happen. Ruthless is the word that comes to my mind, we don’t want to give any inch to the opposition. Oppositions never let you come into the series when you tour abroad.

We want to do that. If it seems overconfident to people outside then we can’t do anything. Ravi himself has been a part of this dressing room, he knows what conversations we have, what mindset we have. So yeah. it’s about being ruthless, not being overconfident,” he added.

Toss Is Not A Factor At All In This Series: Rohit Sharma

For his part, Rohit Sharma acknowledged that the Indian batting lineup hasn’t exactly been at its best during the series. Throughout the five games of the series, they have just once surpassed the 300-run threshold. They were dismissed for 109 and 163 in the Indore Test.

Although they managed to score 400 runs in the first innings of the Nagpur Test, the majority of the runs were scored by their all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Ravichandran Ashwin after skipper Rohit Sharma reached a century.

In the first three Test matches, India lost half of its team for scores of 168, 125, 45, and 113.

No other batter in the top five has managed to score more than 50 runs in the series besides Rohit and Pujara. Virat Kohli has looked terrific but has managed to find ways to get out. Shreyas Iyer’s aggressive strategy hasn’t yet yielded any results.

“We didn’t bat well enough in the last Test, that’s why we didn’t win. Not having enough runs on the game is probably what cost us the game. Toss is not a factor at all in this series. You’ve got to trust your skills.

“Leave the conditions aside, every Test match you play, you’ve got to find ways to score runs, that is the talk within the group. How much is the pitch turning, how the conditions are we are trying to keep those thoughts away. We have to find our way to score runs on whatever pitches we get.

You can’t change a lot of things in three weeks, so you just need to adapt and change your mindset keeping your batting approach in mind. More than skills, it’s how you mentally want to tackle the opposition bowlers,” Rohit Sharma said.

Also Read: IND vs AUS: “That Was A Perfect Scenario”- Brad Hogg On KL Rahul Being Dropped For Shubman Gill In Playing XI

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