Rohit Sharma's "You Stay Calm" Dig At England's Bazball After Rajkot Test Hammering

In a veiled dig at England over is 'Bazball' style of cricket after India steam-rolled the visitors by a massive 434 runs in the third Test at Rajkot, with a day to spare, skipper Rohit Sharma said staying in the game for all five days was more important than winning in two or three days. A five-wicket haul by ace all-rounder and first-innings centurion Ravindra Jadeja and top knocks from skipper Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, double centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal and debutant Sarfaraz Khan saw England sink to its knees and surrender to the hosts inside four days.

The sparkling victory saw the hosts go 2-1 up in the five-match series.

Speaking at the post-match presentation, Rohit said, "When you play Test cricket, you do not play it in two or three days. You have to stay in the game for five days. They played good shots (in the second innings) and put us under pressure but we have got class in our squad when it comes to bowling. So obviously the message was to stay calm (after day two). Important that time to stay calm, otherwise you drift. We stuck to our plans on day three, and when those things happen, it is a delight."

On Jadeja promoted to number five in the first innings and Sarfaraz Khan notching up two half-centuries in his debut Test, the India skipper said, "For this game, we thought he (Jadeja) has so much experience in this format, and scored lot of runs of late. We also wanted left-right batting as well. Sarfaraz being Sarfaraz, we know his quality, we wanted him to have some time before he comes out to bat. We saw what he can do with the bat. By no means is it some long plan with the batting order, we go with what is right for us for that Test match. Including calculating what the opponents' bowling attack is."

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