Centurion, Dec 29
After losing the first Test to South Africa by an innings and 32 runs, India captain Rohit Sharma said the batters need to devise their own individual plans, which he feels are more important than the techniques they possess, adding that it holds huge importance while going on tough overseas assignments.
After conceding a 163-run lead to South Africa, India had a horror second innings which lasted 34.1 overs, as eight batters, including Rohit, fell for single-digit scores to be 131 all out. Virat Kohli tried to avoid the ignominy of an innings defeat, scoring a fighting 76 off 82 balls, but ran out of support from the other end.
"When you come in such conditions, it's important for you to have confidence in yourself even more than the technique. Mentally, if you trust yourself and your game on what you need to do. It's important to have individual plans in such venues and such a country.
"Everyone has a different kind of technique, so you can't tell everyone how to play. It's important to come here with individual plans. If you want to score runs and do well, individual plans are more important than techniques, to study their bowlers, their strengths," said Rohit after the match ended.
Citing KL Rahul's magnificent 101 in the first innings, Rohit asked for his batters to take cues from that knock to tackle tough batting conditions. "What KL Rahul did in the first innings is the perfect example of the intent, at the same time respecting the conditions as well. At the end of the day, he scored runs at a strike rate of 71, and he put the bad balls away. That is what we talk about intent.
"We don't want to just go and swing our bats. If there are conditions we'll do that. There is a very thin line. Every individual is quite different and we try to talk to every individual in the way they want to play. Obviously, keeping the conditions in mind, what better they can do as well.
"It's a mixture of everything - intent, a little bit of discipline, that extra temperament. When you come to places like this, with conditions like that, you need to have all kinds of things in your mind. You got to go and adapt and know that there will be times when the bowlers will be tired, and try to cash in."
Rohit also insisted that India has it in them to bounce back in the series, with the second Test starting at Cape Town on January 3, while adding that the batting line-up can put up a better performance at the Newlands Cricket Ground.
"We might have put in this performance here, but don't forget what we did in Australia and England. We won the series in Australia on the back of our batting. We drew the series in England through our batting and bowling both. These performances can happen. It doesn't mean we don't know how to bat outside India.
“Sometimes the opposition performs better than us. I think on those terms. The opposition played better than us. That's why they won. Not that we couldn't bat even 110 overs. Go and check the results over the last four years or last four tours. It's not always going to be happy days for the captain.
"On days like these, the captain needs to stand up and get around the team more than anything else. We can learn from what went wrong. But when you take the job, you will have days like this. I have full confidence in the guys we have here now. But now it's about getting together and standing for each other," the skipper concluded.
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