India’s head coach Rahul Dravid lauded Rohit’s significant contribution not just with the bat, but also his leadership qualities.
“It has been a pleasure watching him bat since I saw him as an 18-year-old. It is always pleasing to the eye. But I think he has added a lot of steel and grit to that. Sometimes, we forget that a little bit. Look at his numbers. He was shy enough not to mention the critical situation where he won the toss in Rajkot, and we were 3 down in the first hour. You need somebody to step up and get a hundred, and the captain does that for you,” Dravid said in a chat on JioCinema.
India were tottering at 33/3 in the first innings of the Rajkot Test and then Rohit played a captain’s knock. He scored a magnificent 133 off 196 deliveries and added 204 runs with Ravindra Jadeja for the fourth wicket to take India out of trouble.
Rohit signed off the series with 400 runs in five Tests, averaging 44.44. He scored two centuries and a fifty in India’s series win.
“He has been terrific to watch; it is not easy to start as a middle-order player and then open. To do that consistently when we needed it, especially in the last three games, is a credit to him in spite of other things happening around him,” said Dravid.
