“Wanted Ishan To Get…”: Skipper Rohit Sharma On His Displeased Gesture Towards Debutant

India registered a big victory over West Indies in the first Test of the two-match series on Saturday. The Rohit Sharma-led side brutally thrashed the hosts by an innings and 141 runs on Day 3 of the match and had a winning start to their World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle. Asked to bowl first, the visitors bundled out West Indies for just 150 in the first innings and then went onto post 421/5, before declaring in the first session on Day 3. However, skipper Rohit Sharma’s displeased gesture towards wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan went viral.

Ishan, who made his debut in the longest format with this match, took 20 balls to open his run-tally, which left Rohit visibly angry. After Ishan was not able to get off the mark in the first 19 deliveries, the skipper emerged from the dressing room and prompted him to take a single.

After the match ended, Rohit opened up about the situation and revealed he was just making the batters aware that he would be declaring the innings after an over and he wanted Ishan to open his run tally.

“I was just letting them know we have an over or so before declaring. I wanted Ishan to get off the mark, wanted to tell him to get his personal mark and then we had to declare. I could see that he was always eager to bat, it could be frustrating for them,” Rohit told media.

Senior off-spinner R Ashwin picked up yet another five-wicket haul (7/71) to bowl India to an innings and 141-run win over West Indies in the opening Test on Friday. Praising his team’s bowling efforts, Rohit said that bowling out the hosts for 150 had “set the game” for India.

“I would like to start by saying it was a great effort with the ball. Getting them out for 150 set the game for us. We knew batting would get tough, it wasn’t easy to score runs. We knew we wanted to bat only once and bat long. Get over 400 runs and then we came out and bowled really well,” said Rohit.

India, who had reached 400 for four at lunch, declared their first innings at 421 for five and grabbed a massive lead of 271 runs even before the West Indies came out to bat in their second innings. In the extended final session, West Indies were bundled out for 130 in their second innings, as the match ended in three days.

With PTI inputs