Ready to accept what comes with Rishabh Pant: Rohit Sharma | Cricket News – Times of India

BENGALURU: It has been a season of change for Team India. From head coach to captain and old guard making way for new, the transition appears to be seamless.
Coach Rahul Dravid is not new to the coaching set-up or to the players, and that has shown effectively on the field. The same goes with new captain Rohit Sharma.
Also, Hanuma Vihari and Shreyas Iyer, replacing Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, appear to have come into their own. Iyer, in particular, has shown spark and spunk. Jasprit Bumrah shored up his versatility with his first fifer on home soil, that too on a turning pitch.

The bigger gain for India has been the growth of wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant in the longer format. Apart from the 185 runs that he piled up in the series, the 24-year-old also accounted for five catches and three sharp stumpings and was deservingly named man of the series.
Skipper Rohit dwelled on the main men of the series and the takeaways.
Excerpts:
On Test captaincy: I haven’t captained much in red ball, except a few games in Ranji Trophy. It was a big thing to lead here in Tests. I got support from the team at the ground, they were telling me what to do and what not to do. There are a few senior members in the team who understand the game well and I have their inputs. I have my reading of the game as well. But eventually you work on instinct and my captaincy philosophy is to take a call on that point which seems right to you, keeping in mind of where the game is going. I try to analyse these things on the ground.

On Rishabh Pant’s approach: We know how he bats. As a team we just want to give him the freedom to bat in the way that he wants to bat, but also keeping in mind certain situations of the game. We have conveyed that to him but we want him to stick with his gameplan as a team. I think what comes with Pant, we are ready to accept that. And the most significant factor in this series was his wicket-keeping. His keeping was the best that I have seen.

(AP Photo)
On Shreyas Iyer’s sparkling form: I’m very impressed with his performance because it is not easy to play on these pitches, especially when you are playing your third or fourth Test. He showed a lot of composure. He understood what he exactly wanted to do on that pitch. He has gone in with a plan and to have that kind of mindset for someone who is just playing his fourth Test shows a lot of maturity, a lot of understanding of his own game, which is a good sign for us looking forward.
On Jasprit Bumrah’s performance: Magnificent, without a doubt. Someone like Bumrah is never out of the game whatever the conditions and that gives the captain a lot of benefits like rotating and getting the best out of each bowler. To bowl on certain pitches, you need certain skill sets, and he seems to bring those skillsets into the game depending on what sort of assistance he has from the pitch. Not to forget Shami as well, he too was brilliant under lights.