Meanwhile, one look at Rohit and you will see that there are no filters. When the session or game is not going India’s way, you can see it in his face. He will be worked up sometimes, and on other occasions, it would feel like he is just going through the motions without much planning or adaptation. It was quite evident during the ongoing five-match rubber against visiting England. In fact, for the better part of the Test series, that is how it felt.
Rohit-led India were caught off guard in Hyderabad when England came hard at them. Questions were asked and rightly so. Then in Visakhapatnam, they got the combination right and the rest was taken care of by Jasprit Bumrah and Jaiswal. In Rajkot, however, Rohit had to do something on day three. He did not have R Ashwin, England were running away with their batting.
This time, he came better prepared. After reading the surface better on day two, Kuldeep Yadav bowled wider lines making Ben Duckett reach, then after lunch, the field changed. They attacked the stumps, had close-in fielders. End result — Mohammed Siraj took four wickets as India gained a 146-run lead. From thereon, there was looking back.
India took lead, came to Ranchi. Once again, Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid read the conditions and devised plans accordingly. While it seemed like England took the first day — credit to Joe Root — and India conceded a tad more than they should have, they went back to the drawing board and came up with better plans. England were all out in a couple of sessions on day three with Ashwin and Kuldeep adapting to the surface.
