India played the England series without a bunch of key players or in other words paved way for a bunch of budding players. Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Mohammad Shami opted out of the series and Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah's partial contribution made it a challenging win.
However, Sarfaraz Khan's impactful debut in Rajkot and Dhruv Jurel's Player of the Match-winning performance in Ranchi proved that India's young brigade is ready to take things forward.
"I have spoken enough about key players missing, so I don't want to talk about it more. But the guys who have come in have done the job perfectly, they have taken the responsibility. You can take a lot of pride from performances like this. Test cricket throws at you different types of challenges and pressures but the way the youngsters have dealt with it throughout the series has been superb. In a way, you can say that this series was a glimpse into the future of Indian Test cricket. Some of these guys are quite young and you will see these guys playing for the coming 5-10 years regularly in this format for sure.” Rohit Sharma said in the post-match press conference.
Captain also took a dig at players like Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer who are unwilling to play in Test cricket and stayed out of the Ranji Cup trophy this year.
"Test cricket is the toughest format, and if you want success and want to excel in this tough format then you need that hunger. It is very important. We will give opportunity only to players who have that hunger. You come to know easily the players who don't have that hunger or players who don't want to stay here. We come to know that".
"Players who have that hunger, players who want to stay here and perform, and play in tough conditions, we will give preference to them. It is pretty simple: if you don't have hunger, there's no meaning in playing such players."
Overnight 40/0 in a chase of 192 here, India romped home after surviving a few hiccups with the opening duo of skipper Rohit Sharma (55 off 81 balls) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (37 off 44 balls) providing the perfect platform for others to build with their 84-run stand on day four of the match.
There were some jitters after the two departed in close succession followed by Rajat Patidar and Ravindra Jadeja's dismissal but Shubman Gill (52 not out) and Dhruv Jurel (39 not out) guided the side past the finishing line with an unbeaten 72-run partnership.
India leads 3-1 in the series with the last game scheduled in Dharamsala on March 7. The team's last home series loss was a 1-2 defeat to an Alastair Cook-led England in 2012-13. Since then, India has won 39 out of 50 Tests at home.
First Published: Feb 26, 2024 6:27 PM IST
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