Australia vs India, 4th Test: Rohit Sharma Needs To Improve His Performance, Says Ricky Ponting

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting on Saturday said if opener Rohit Sharma wants to be a consistent batsman in Test cricket, the India vice-captain cannot gift his wicket away after a promising start. Rohit was looking in great touch on Day two of the fourth Test against Australia at The Gabba before he got out trying to clear the boundary against Nathan Lyon. Ponting said even if that is Rohit's style, he needs to do better. "It's easy to say that's the way he plays but you've got to be better than that," cricket.com.au quoted Ponting as saying.

"If you want to be a really good, consistent Test match batsman you can't just be going and throwing what could have been such a promising innings away like he did," he added.

Ponting explained that Australia had set a game plan to bamboozle Rohit and the opener fell into the trap.

"He got to 44 comfortably, everything seemed to be hitting the middle of the bat, he just started to play some nice drives down the ground," said Ponting.

"And the trap was set for him as well, that mid-on fieldsman was three-quarters of the way back, there was also a deep forward square leg, so what Rohit was thinking there we'll never know. I'm sure Rohit would love to have his time over again," he added.

Rohit said he wants to fulfill the certain role given to him by the team management. 

"It's only three innings, of course, I have opened in India in the limited-overs format, it is time for me to test myself in the longer format as well, the team has shown a lot of confidence in my ability at the top," said Rohit during the virtual press conference at the end of the day''s action on Saturday.

"I have to do what the team expects me to do, I don't need to worry about what happens outside. The team expects me to play a certain role at the top of the order and I will try to do it as much as I can," he added.

Rohit said he was analysing how to get the better of Australian bowlers while he was in quarantine.

"Having watched the first two Tests in Adelaide and Melbourne while I was in quarantine, I saw the discipline the Australian bowlers had. You have to try to figure out how to score runs against these guys, they do not give anything so easily," he said.

"It is something I was trying to think about my batting when I was not playing, in the first half of my batting. I was getting closer to the ball and once I am in, I try to hit few shots, in the end, you want to score runs, it worked until I got out," he added.

Topics mentioned in this article

Australia vs India 2020-21 Australia Cricket Team India Cricket Team Rohit Sharma Ricky Ponting Cricket