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As the fifth and final Test match between India and England is set to begin in Dharamshala on March 7, captain Rohit Sharma sat down for the press conference one day prior to the match. India have already won the series as they lead 3-1. After losing the first Test in Hyderabad, India bounced back really well, winning the next three Tests in Vizag, Rajkot, and Ranchi.
Rohit Sharma schools Ben Duckett with Pant reminder
Meanwhile Rohit Sharma gave a strong retort to Ben Duckett for his bizarre ‘Yashasvi Jaiswal is learning from England’ remark.
In the third Test at Rajkot, where Yashasvi Jaiswal notched up his second double century of the series, Duckett mentioned that the aggressive batting style of the young player in the series owed some recognition to Bazball.
"When you see players from the opposition playing like that, it almost feels like we should take some credit that they're playing differently than how other people play Test cricket. We saw it a bit in the summer and it's quite exciting to see other players and other teams are also playing that aggressive style of cricket," Duckett had said.
On the eve of the fifth Test between India and England, Rohit while replying to Duckett's remark said that he might not have witnessed Rishabh Pant's batting throughout his career.
"There was a guy called Rishabh Pant in our team, probably Ben Duckett hasn't seen him play", Rohit said in the pre-match press conference on March 6.
Rohit all praise for Ben Stokes' England
However, Rohit also admitted that England have improved from their last tour, where they suffered a 3-1 defeat in a four-match series and displayed lackluster cricket.
“They played better cricket when they were here in the last series. Credit to two (Three) of the batters who scored a ton here,” Rohit added.
So far in the series, Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett, and Joe Root have each scored centuries for England, with Zack Crawley also making valuable contributions with the bat. Despite these efforts, the visitors have repeatedly missed crucial opportunities with both bat and ball, leading to their series loss.
England's Playing XI for 5th Test against India
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, James Anderson, Shoaib Bashir.
India's squad for 5th Test against England
Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Devdutt Padikkal, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep.
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