India’s Test captain Rohit Sharma understands that they are the team to beat. The two-time World Test Championship (WTC) finalists have not faced a defeat against Bangladesh in the format and Rohit reminded them of what England players spoke at the press conference earlier this year. Rohit is not concerned about the opposition despite their historic series win against Pakistan and wants to focus on the game.
"(Sabko India ko Harana, sabko India ko harne me maza aata, Thik hai Bangladesh ko baat karne do, England ne bhi bahut kuch bola tha Test series se pahle, but apne kaam hai field par Jawab dena aur apne performance se) Every team wants to beat India, they all enjoy that, lene do maze.) We have played lot of cricket against variety of teams. We will focus on our own game. When England came they also spoke a lot in the press conferences, but we do not focus on that; We try to play good cricket and not think too much about opposition,” Rohit said at the press conference in Chennai ahead of the first Test starting September 19.
Rohit considers Bangladesh series important
India are currently placed at the top of the WTC 2023-25 points table. They need at least five wins from next 10 Tests to qualify for the WTC final for the third consecutive time. Rohit stressed on the importance of bilateral series and said that the team won't things lightly just because they won an ICC trophy.
“We know how it works. Talks will start happening around how we lost bilateral series if we don’t win. I am not sure how it works for other teams, I can only talk about India. Every series is important for us. We won’t relax just because we have won a trophy, it doesn’t work like that. You have to make the best of everything. We have very limited time to play cricket,” the 37-year-old said.
Players ready for Bangladesh challenge
In addition, Rohit said that the team has made the most of the camp in Chennai and are ready for the long home season.
“We had a break. Important to have a camp. We had good time spending time on the field, getting this back together. It’s tough. Guys who didn’t play a lot played Duleep Trophy. We are quite ready for this game and what lies ahead. It was important to utilise this little camp in Chennai pretty well,” he said.
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