Skipper Rohit Sharma showered praise on his deputy Shubman Gill and veteran pacer Mohammed Shami for coming with game-changing performances against Bangladesh in India’s Champions Trophy opener against Bangladesh in Dubai on Thursday. Gill made an unbeaten hundred and Shami walked away with a five-wicket haul as India registered a six-wicket win over Bangladesh at the DICS. “We’ve been in that situation many times before and like I said many times (in the past), there’s a lot of experience in that dressing room to handle that composure where it’s needed and KL (Rahul) and (Shubman) Gill at the end were quite composed,” Rohit said during the post-match presentation.
Rohit heaped praise on player of the match Gill.
“Gill, we know the class that he has, he’s been batting brilliantly of late and today what he showed us with the bat shouldn’t surprise anyone,” he said.
“What was good to see that he was there till the end to make sure that he sees off the game,” Rohit added.
Rohit also lauded Shami for his five-for that helped the pacer to complete 200 wickets in ODIs.
“Yeah, very happy for him. (It has been a) long time waiting, we obviously know what he brings to us,” Rohit said.
“The quality that he has, the kind of match winner he is developing himself into for us, every time we throw the ball at him he’s got something up his sleeves, which is always nice and we need guys like these to stand up in big moments,” he added.
Rohit said India expect the pitch here at the Dubai International Stadium to remain slow for their next Champions Trophy clash against Pakistan on February 23.
“Very hard to say that,” Rohit replied when asked if his side thought the pitch behaved as per their expectations.
“It’s just one game, very hard to make anything out of the track, but we knew there’s not enough grass on the pitch and it is going to be on the slower side and that is exactly how the pitch played,” he said.
“But again, you play (according to) the conditions. You try and think about what you want to do as a team and I thought we adapted to the conditions really well, to start with our bowling.” India were off to a brisk start but were forced to change their approach midway through the innings and Rohit admitted his side was “under pressure” chasing 229.
“With the bat as well, yes, we were under pressure a little bit. But when you’re playing a game like this, (in the) Champions Trophy (against a) quality team, you’re bound to be under pressure and that is where the experience comes into play,” he said.
The Mumbaikar said he was not happy with the dropped catch of Jaker Ali (68) which denied Axar Patel a hat-trick.
“May take him for dinner tomorrow,” he quipped.
“It was an easy catch. I should have taken that catch, the standard that I have set for myself, standing in the first slip, that was a little disappointing, but these things happen,” Rohit added.
“But again, the way these guys bowled that set the game for us to be honest, I know they were 36 for five and then they got a big partnership.” “These things are bound to happen, there will be partnerships, credit to (Towhid) Hridoy and Jaker Ali, they played brilliantly to stitch that big partnership,” he said.
Gill termed his 101 not out as “one of the most satisfying innings” for himself “Definitely (it was) one of my most satisfying innings that I’ve played and my first century in an ICC event so very satisfying and very happy with the way I performed,” he said.
“When myself and Rohit bhai went out there, cutting the ball wasn’t that easy because the balls outside the off (stump) weren’t coming onto the bat. So I thought of using my feet to even the fast bowlers when I’m trying to go over the circle,” he said.
“When the when the spinners came on me and Virat bhai were talking about in the middle that it’s not easy to score signals off the front foot,” he added.
Gill said he was asked to finish off the match. “At one point there was a bit of pressure on us and the message was sent from outside (that) I have to try to be at the end and that’s what I tried to do,” he said.
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