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Ahead of the Boxing Day Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India skipper Rohit Sharma on Tuesday said that they are currently focussing only on the upcoming Test match and are looking forward to displaying a strong performance at Melbourne.
The series is currently tied at 1-1 after India secured a draw in the third Test in Brisbane. The Boxing Day Test will kick off on December 26 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. India started the series on a high note with a massive 295-run victory over Australia. However, the visitors conceded a 10-wicket defeat against Australia in the Adelaide Test after a disappointing performance. The Gabba Test ended in a draw after rain played a spoilsport in Brisbane, a game largely dominated by the hosts. Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Rohit said that India played "some really good cricket" at the Perth Test of the ongoing BGT series. "We played some really good cricket, we've been fortunate as well, when we won that test match, when you get bowled out for 150 runs, you feel that you are under pressure a little bit, and then the attitude from the boys, how they turned up and got Australia bowled out for 100 runs, shows that there is an attitude where nobody wants to give it up until the last day of the test match, or the last over of the test match is bowled, and that is the attitude we've been carrying for a long time now when you tour abroad, you know that you have to put in that extra effort, have that extra bit of attitude within the team, and that is something that we showed in that test match," Rohit said. He added that Team India was a little bit behind in the game at the Adelaide Test and didn't play well. The India skipper further said that both sides have displayed "solid cricket" in the ongoing BGT series "And then obviously in Adelaide, we were a little bit behind in the game, we didn't play well, which I admitted to. And then Brisbane obviously, there wasn't much, only 180 or 190 overs were bowled, so after three test matches, if I had to look at it being one-all, it's a fair reflection of how both teams have played, there's been solid cricket being played by both teams, and obviously now these two test matches are going to be so important for both teams, but we want to break it down to just Melbourne now and focus on what we can achieve here, get our things right, play well, bat well, bowl well, and take some good catches as well," he added. India Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Australia Squad: Pat Cummins (C), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (VC), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (VC), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster. (ANI)
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