India captain Rohit Sharma did not mark the most pleasant return to the cricket field, departing for a single-figure score on Day 1 of the first Test against South Africa. Rohit attempted a pull shot, perhaps his most decorated stroke, against Kagiso Rabada but found a fielder instead of clearing the ropes. When Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour was asked about Rohit's dismissal at the post-match press conference on the first day, he passionately defended the skipper.
“Rohit, I mean, I've talked about it before too. This is the shot that he believes in, this is the shot that he scores a lot of points with. This is his shot. So he's going to play this shot.” Rathour told the press in Centurion after the first day of play.
“Some days it will work. Some days it won't work. So today that didn't happen. We can talk about it. Another day he will score a six and everyone will say that's the shot he made. ” plays very well. We've heard people say he's the best tractor in the world. He believes in it. We are doing well, as team management we support it,” he added.
Rathour praised middle-order batsman KL Rahul and said he is a man of crisis. Speaking at the post-day press conference, Rathour said that every time India suffered, Rahul prevailed to take India to a better place. He added that Rahul was very clear with his plans against South Africa and did what he wanted to do.
“He's a man of crisis. Whenever there's a tough situation, he's usually there. He's very clear with his game plans about what he wanted to do,” Rathour said.
Speaking about the conditions at Centurion, he further added that it was a “challenging surface to bat”, especially due to the rainy weather.
The batting coach added that they would like to get more runs on the scoreboard after the end of the first day. However, he added that the visitors did “pretty well” against the Proteas on day one.
“It was always going to be a challenging surface to bat on because the weather was there, the wicket was undercover for a day or more. We would like to have a few more wickets in hand at the end of the day but we are doing quite well well done, we have runs on board,” he added.
Talking about Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer, he praised the two batters and said they played a crucial recovery partnership after India lost three wickets.
“The situation was tough. After losing three wickets, it was a good recovery partnership from Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer, both of them played well,” he added.
With ANI inputs
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