The experienced players are the ones who have to take that extra responsibility – Rohit Sharma on Virat Kohli’s promotion to number 3

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma revealed that the experienced players are the ones who have to take extra responsibility when asked about Virat Kohli’s promotion to number three in the first innings of the opening Test match against New Zealand at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Thursday.

After Shubman Gill was ruled out with a stiff neck, Kohli willingly accepted the team’s management strategy of batting him at one down. But the former Indian skipper was dismissed on a blob when he received a peach of a delivery from rookie pacer William O’Rourke.

This was the first time in eight years when Kohli was batting at number three and he could not deliver for the team as his mundane run continued.

“The experienced players are the ones who have to take that extra responsibility. It is a good sign. This time, it was Virat. He was the one who was ready to do that. We asked him whether he can bat at number three,” Rohit revealed in the press conference.

“We wanted to give Sarfraz the position that he usually bats four, five, six maybe. But we didn’t want to change Rishabh and KL (Rahul). Hence, Sarfraz went at four and Virat batted at three,” he said.

Meanwhile, India was skittled out for a paltry score of 46 runs, with five batters not even opening their account. Rohit feels the shot selection of some of their players, including himself, could have been better.

“On a pitch where there was assistance for the seamers, and now that we were bowled out for 46, you could say the shot selection wasn’t up to the mark. It was a bad day. Sometimes you plan to do something but fail to execute,” the Indian skipper added.

At lunch on Day three, New Zealand were 345-7, leading by a mammoth margin of 299 runs.