Rohit Sharma, India’s Test captain, has mocked the team’s Test rivals, saying that every team wants to defeat India. India will face off against Bangladesh in a two-Test series with the first match to be played in Chennai from September 19 onwards.
Rohit Sharma-led Team India will return to action after a 45-day sabbatical, while Bangladesh is coming off a 2-0 away Test series victory over Pakistan. Bangladesh, on the other hand, would face a very different and far more formidable battle in India, where Rohit and his team presently lead the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) points table.
Bangladesh, who made their Test debut against India in 2000, have the highest chance of defeating India. It’s because they’ve just won a historic 2-0 series in Pakistan and are full of confidence.
‘Let Bangladesh have fun’: Rohit Sharma ahead of first Test
All that matters to the India captain are the next ten Test matches, which he hopes to win all of and advance to the World Test Championship final for the third time in a row.
Rohit is also aware of the threat that Bangladesh poses. When asked about Bangladesh’s recent form, India’s skipper responded with a save.
“Sabhi teamo ko india ko harana hai, unhe india ko harane me maza ata hai, maze lene do unko (let them have fun), we will focus on how to beat them. We need to win the match and that’s what we are here for. We can’t think about what they have to think and say about us. When England came here, they said a lot of things too. But we didn’t focus much on it.
We needed to deliver results and that’ll be out aim here as well. To play good cricket. India have played against a lot of teams recently and out combined aim is to win, rather than keep thinking about the opposition,” Rohit said in a pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
Rohit Sharma maintains India will not make the mistake of taking Bangladesh lightly, and he does not believe the series beginning Thursday and the one following against New Zealand next month are ‘dress rehearsals’ of any kind.
“Every Test match is a big one. We are playing for country there is no dress rehearsal happening. Every game is important. Because of what is at stake – WTC. Table is quite wide open. You want to play every game. We want to win here. Focus on winning the Bangladesh series rather than looking too far ahead. We are resuming after a long time. Nice to have everyone back. When it starts, we have to see where we stand and then take it from there,” Rohit Sharma added.
After Bangladesh, India will host New Zealand for three more Tests before traveling to Australia for the highly awaited five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. Bangladesh has never beaten India in a test match.
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