Rohit Sharma remains one of the finest and most respected captains in the game. But, New Zealand’s 3-0 series win against India in the recently concluded Test assignment has made many raise questions on his tactical acumen. As pressure piles on Rohit to deliver in the forthcoming series against Australia, many wonder if Rohit will be removed as captain if India don’t do well Down Under. Now, New Zealand star Will Young has revealed how he foiled Rohit’s tactical plans with ease, forcing the India skipper to change his strategies against the Kiwis.
In a chat with ESPNCricinfo, Young revealed his learnings from the India tour in 2021 where he and some of the other batters in the team learned to master their skills on spin-friendly surfaces.
We toured here in 2021 and we had a two-Test match series, in Kanpur and Mumbai, and the batting group that’s here is largely the same as the one three years ago,” he said.
“So I suppose if you look at it with a wider lens, you can say that we’ve been learning since then. There’s been lots of tours to the subcontinent, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and even some spinning surfaces at home at times. We were always keen to learn and adapt and grow as batsmen,” the batter added.
Speaking of the 2024 assignment, Young said that Rohit and Jadeja had devised a plan to put pressure on him by blocking the mid-off region to score runs. However, Young manage to make Rohit change the tactic quickly as he efficiently developed a counter-strategy.
“It was just this one particular passage of play [in Mumbai] where Jadeja had brought mid-off up. Most of the series he’d had him back because he was quite comfortable for the right-handers to try to push the ball into the off side and bring the slips into play. But this particular passage of play, Jadeja and Rohit had decided to bring mid-off up.”
“And I just felt that if the ball was full enough, I could try to reach it and smother the spin and get it over the top straight. And I had a chat to Daryl Mitchell about it in between overs and he said, “Yeah, mate, just back yourself.””
“He said make sure you stay down through the shot or something along those lines. He’s obviously very good at it [hitting down the ground] himself. So when the opportunity arose, I took it and then the fielder went back and I could keep on playing from there,” he added.
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