Rohit Sharma: Comebacks aren’t easy, but Jadeja is brilliant

The message to Indiarsquos spin trio from the leadership group on Day Three of the second Test against Australia for the BorderGavaskar Trophy on Sunday morning was to keep things simple and not complicate them by changing the field oftenAnd the bowlers leftarm Ravindra Jadeja who returned careerbest figures for an innings and the match and offspinner Ashwin who took three wickets third spinner Axar Patel didnrsquot bowl on Sunday responded brilliantly to skittle out the visitors for a meagre 113 runs in the second innings in just over 31 oversIn fact the visitors lost their last eight wickets in just 48 minutes before India went to lunch at 14 for one needing 115 that they reached just before the scheduled tea in 26 overs for the loss of four wickets at the Arun Jaitley StadiumAustralia had taken a onerun first innings lead yesterday and then rattled the hostsrsquo spinners with an aggressive approach by scoring 61 for one in 12 overs before stumpslsquoWe were panicking a bitrsquoldquoYesterday Saturday we bowled about 1213 overs and they were 61 which is more than five and a half per over I could see we were panicking a bit and trying to change the field many times In the morning we just wanted to tell those three guys that we need to keep calm and there was no need to change the field as often as we did last evening We wanted them to keep it there keep it tight and let the batters make the mistakerdquo said Rohit at the postmatch media conference after his teamrsquos sixwicket victoryldquoI could sense that they Australians wanted to play that way and that the wicket pitch was not one to come out and just play the shots You need to find the balance and try to put them under pressure and thatrsquos what we wanted to do this morningldquoAll these three guys have played a lot of cricket in these conditions Those batters in the opposition group are quality batters There are bound to be partnerships Itrsquos just about absorbing pressure keeping it there and letting the wicket do the restmdashthat was the talkrdquo Rohit explainedAshwin took the first two wickets in the morning those of the aggressive Travis Head and Steven Smith before Jadeja ripped into the rest barring Matthew Renshaw to finish with sensational innings figures of 742 his career best that included a brilliant morning spell of 619 in 91 overs His match figures of 10 for 110 also became his careerbestJadejarsquos self confidence in his abilities having come into the series after undergoing knee surgery last August was singled out by RohitlsquoHigh on confidencersquoldquoHe has been brilliant Comebacks are not easy The confidence he has in his abilities is massive You can see that on the field There were times when he was put under pressure but there was no sense of panicldquoYesterday he went for more than five an over but he knew what the batters were trying to do He was confident that he could put them under pressure and get them out The guy has played so much cricket and taken over 250 wickets I just need to trust that confidencerdquoAlso ReadI am happy with how I am going Rohit SharmaKL gets Rohitrsquos backingRohit also came to the defence of his underperforming deputy K L Rahul who has flopped with the bat in all four innings in the series thus farldquoOf late there has been a lot of talk about his batting As team management we always look at the potential of any individual If the guy has potential he will get an extended runrdquo