We have to be brave on challenging wickets: Rohit Sharma

Australia have bounced back in a commanding fashion in the ongoing edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to clinch the third Test at the Holkar Stadium in Indore by nine wickets and secure their spot in the World Test Championship final in June. 

After bundling out India for 163 runs in the second innings, the visiting side needed only 76 runs to win at the start of Day three. Despite getting off to a horrendous start as they lost Usman Khawaja on the second delivery of the day. 

However, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne steadied the innings and forged an unbeaten 78-run stand for the second wicket to power Australia over the line. 

In the post-match presentation, Rohit Sharma stated that lack of runs in the first innings led to India's downfall. "When you lose a Test match, there's a lot of things that didn't go our way. To start with, we didn't bat well in the first innings. We understand how important it is to put runs on the board in the first innings," he said. 

"And obviously when they got an 80-90 run lead, we needed to put in a big performance with the bat but we couldn't do that, taking just a 75-run lead. Honestly, we haven't thought about it yet," he further added. 

The 35-year-old also believed that India were not brave in their approach in this game and allowed the Australian bowlers to bowl at one particular spot, making it difficult to score runs on the challenging surface. 

"When you are playing on challenging pitches you have to be brave. We allowed their bowlers to bowl in one spot. Not to take any credit away from their bowlers, Nathan Lyon especially. We had to try and be brave, which I think we were not," he said. 

"We can take a lot of credit as well, how we batted in the first two games. One odd game can happen where things don't come together, but even then you need players to come together and chip in. We were slightly behind, and we did not apply ourselves the way we would have liked to," he said. 

With the Test match ending in just over two days, there has been plenty of question marks revolving around the pitch, but Rohit believes it is the skill of the players that resulted in an early finish. 

"This pitch talk is getting too much. Every time we play in India it's always about the pitch. It's about skills, and I prefer this more than just a genuine flat wicket that goes five days and can be boring in stages," he said in the post-match press conference. 

"There's always something happening on these wickets, and you've got to really work hard for your runs," he concluded. 

India lead the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1, and the last Test match will be played from March 9 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.