During the pre-match press conference ahead of the series-deciding fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, Rohit Sharma was asked whether the Indian team was a bit ‘overconfident’ after winning the first two Tests in Nagpur and Delhi, which led to their downfall in the previous Test in Indore.
It was former India head coach Ravi Shastri who made the comments while commentating in Indore. “This is what a little complacency, a little bit of overconfidence can do. When you take things for granted, you drop guard and this game will bring you down,” Shastri said in the commentary after Australia beat India on the third morning of the Test match.
The former India all-rounder was referring to the shots played by some of the Indian batters in the first innings. India were bowled out for 109, which gave Australia a huge advantage.
The Indian captain, however, ‘rubbished’ the claims and said their ‘ruthlessness’ should not be taken as overconfidence.
“When you win two games, if the people outside are feeling we are overconfident, that’s absolutely rubbish. You want to do your best in all the games. You don’t want to stop by winning just two matches,” Rohit said in Ahmedabad on the eve of the Test match.
Rohit Sharma even did not shy away from taking Shastri’s name and terming the former coach an ‘outsider’.
“All these guys, when they talk about being overconfident, especially when they are not part of the dressing room, they don’t know what sort of conversations happen. Ruthless is the word that comes to my mind, we don’t want to give any inch to the opposition. Oppositions never let you come into the series when you tour abroad. We want to do that. If it seems overconfident to people outside then we can’t do anything. Ravi himself has been a part of this dressing room, he knows what conversations we have, what mindset we have. So yeah. it’s about being ruthless, not being overconfident,” he added.
