‘He has shown batting is not impossible on Indian pitches’: Ian Chappell praises India star ahead of 3rd IND vs AUS Test

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell hailed India skipper Rohit Sharma and said that the opener’s has batted superbly in the first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, advising the Australia batters to learn from the India opener.

Australia are currently 2-0 behind in the four-match series. The third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is scheduled to begin from March 1 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

“A successful player needs to quickly work out how to survive the first ten minutes on a typical Indian pitch that encourages spin, and hope he enjoys a share of luck. If he plays sensibly, like Rohit Sharma has admirably shown during the series, batting isn’t impossible on testing Indian pitches,” Chappell said.

Chappell noted that no batter can survive Indian spinners by only playing the sweep shot.  “Sweeping regularly is not the answer to playing good spin bowling, and anyone who says so is talking through his hat. The odd player is very good at sweeping and should utilise the shot, but for the majority there are better ways,” he remarked.

 “Any good spin bowler who makes the ball bounce is likely to expose the dangers in sweeping constantly. It should have been obvious in Australia’s build-up what kinds of batting strategies needed to be used in India. The most beneficial are to watch the ball closely, more so than in Australia, and that there is a fraction more time than you think,” added Chappell.