India’s centurion in the first game and opener Rohit Sharma says that his team will come back strongly despite the disappointing loss in the series opener.
Refusing to be dragged too much into the issue of selection of an extra spinner, Rohit said that the captain and the team management fielded what they thought was the best team for the opener. “We thought because of the conditions and the green patches, it will seam. But, it did not. We must remember that the three bowlers who played in Dharamshala are good. Bhuvi has played a lot of international cricket, Mohit has been around for some time now and Arvind has been a proven character in domestic cricket,” he said.
“They all know what is expected of them — to be aggressive and take wickets. Yes, sometimes things don’t go your way,” he said.
“We will make conscious efforts to play to the South Africans' weaknesses. The captain and the management will decide what is the best combination in the given conditions,” he said.
Reflecting on his century in Dharamshala, Rohit said it did not matter to him whether he scored a century or not when the team loses. “All your efforts are not counted when the team doesn’t win. It is definitely disappointing to lose that game,” he added.
On whether there was any change in his attitude before the series opener, Rohit reminded that he played the same way he had been doing and insisted that he would not change his style. “I always make an effort to put the best foot forward. Definitely happy to score a century. Yes, with the white ball, I play more freely and score quickly once I assess the situation,” he said.
Change in gameplan
South African middle-order batsman Farhaan Behardien feels that the changed playing conditions will for sure force a change in his team’s gameplan given the bigger boundaries and the no dew factor here.
Behardien said that the team will have a plan in place quite naturally as things are so different here.
“But, it is a fact that the two teams are evenly matched and there can be another great contest. Batters dominating these kind of games has been the trend of late. And both India and South Africa have strong batting line-ups,” he said.
“Yes, the left and right combination at the crease does help the batting team for it forces a lot of changes from a bowler’s perspective. We just hope to have another good outing tomorrow,” Behardien said with a smile.
Questioned how as a player he looks at South Africa having three different captains for three formats, Behardien says it is good or else it would have been so demanding for one captain to handle so many things for close to three months. “And, all three captains are massive players with different but effective styles of captaincy,” he said.
