The trio of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant haven’t quite been able to do justice to their talent and abilities so far in the ongoing series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Opener Jaiswal, barring his 161 in the second innings of the series opener in Perth, has had a tough time against the Australian quicks, while Gill and Pant couldn’t cash in despite getting off to starts.

However, the trio have skipper Rohit Sharma’s backing. Rohit still trusts their capabilities and prefers not to “complicate” matters.

“All these boys, like Gill, Jaiswal and Pant, are all in the same boat. They know what they are capable of doing, so we shouldn’t complicate those things,” Rohit said in Melbourne on Tuesday, ahead of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG beginning on Thursday.

“They know what’s expected of them and our job is to tell them to work on small things like game awareness. Idon’t think we need to talk more and complicate their thought process.”

Regarding Jaiswal, Rohit feels the left-hander shouldn’t be overburdened with too many thoughts regarding his batting. “He is coming here in Australia for the first time. He has already shown what he is capable of. He has so much talent, and when you have a guy like him, you don’t want to tamper too much with his mindset.

“Let him be as free as possible and not overburden him with too many thoughts regarding his batting. He understands his batting more than any one of us and that’s how he has played his cricket,” the India captain emphasised.

Rohit has faith in Jaiswal’s ability to both attack and defend, while the opener has
also had conversations with senior players to sort out a few technical issues.

“Their (Australia’s) bowlers are the same. They have four seamers in their squad and one off-spinner.

“We don’t want to tell Jaiswal too many things about his own batting and we want him to play the way he plays. If he gets going, he can be very dangerous,” Rohit said.

Talking about Gill, Rohit stated: “He knows how to score big runs and he has done that before. It’s just about making sure you make it count after getting to 30s and 40s. Getting in here is the toughest part.”

Rohit also brushed aside elements of pressure on keeper-batsman Pant. “There’s no pressure on Pant.

“Look, he played quite a few Tests here. He was in good form in India and
made runs there. We shouldn’t sit here and judge on the basis of two or three Test matches. He knows what he needs to do.”

Backing Kohli

Like in his previous Australia tours, Virat Kohli has reached three figures once on this occasion too. But in his other four innings of the series, Kohli has reached a double-digit score just once so far.

Rohit, as expected, served a one-liner to back the former India captain. “Modern-day greats figure out their own path,” he replied when asked about Kohli’s struggles outside the off-stump.

Rohit’s form too has been a huge concern as he aggregates only 19 in three innings so far, batting down the order at No. 6 and leaving the other opener’s slot to KL Rahul, who has shown better application among all the other Indian batters on this tour. But, questions on his batting position and lack of form seemed to leave the skipper a tad irritated.

“Let’s not worry about that. I think who bats where is something we should be discussing within ourselves and I shouldn’t be answering this question in every press conference,” Rohit said, adding: “After the last Test (in Brisbane), we had two sessions. What could have possibly changed in two days?”