"Joe Root scored a hundred, Jurel scored 90" - Rohit Sharma defends Ranchi pitch after Test series win over England

Rohit Sharma’s Men in Blue won the third Test in Ranchi by five wickets while chasing 192 in the second innings. In the process, they secured the series 3-1 with the final Test to go in Dharamsala.

Rohit too played his part in the chase as he scored a gritty 55 and added an 84-run opening stand with Yashasvi Jaiswal (37). The chase was then completed by an unbeaten 72-run stand between Shubman Gill (52*) and Dhruv Jurel (39*). India lost 5 wickets on the score of 120 to get into a bit of a bother but the Gill-Jurel partnership took them to a win.

There was a lot spoken about the Ranchi pitch throughout the Test match. The pitch was conducive to spin as Shoaib Bashir proved. He picked his maiden Test fifer and ended the match with 8 wickets. Ravichandran Ashwin also picked up a fifer in the first innings and Kuldeep Yadav a four-wicket-haul.

In the end, the Indian batters were able to handle the pressure on the final day with Gill and Jurel showing the application to bat on a tricky wicket. All five Indian wickets were taken by the spinners in the second innings with Bashir taking three and Joe Root and Tom Hartley one each.

Ball Spins And Stays Low on Indian Pitches: Rohit Sharma

Despite all the talk regarding the pitch, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma defended the Ranchi pitch saying that batters got runs in this wicket and that it was not a hard pitch to score runs. He took the example of Joe Root and Jurel to specify.

“One guy scored a 100 one got 90, two players scored fifties. How the pitch looks doesn’t matter, how it plays matters. The game went open for almost four days. It is the nature of pitches in India where the ball spins and stays low. This is nothing new, we’ve been seeing this for the last 50 years,” said Rohit.

He further said that the pitch was not a tough one to score runs if the batters applied themselves. He spoke about Root’s and Jurel’s innings as well.

“It wasn’t like the batters couldn’t bat or the bowlers couldn’t bowl. Actually the bowlers really enjoyed bowling here. But even for batters, if you applied yourself, this wasn’t a tough pitch to bat. Joe Root scored a hundred, Jurel scored 90 runs. More than the runs, it was the number of balls faced. If you can survive over 150 balls, then there’s nothing in the wicket,” Rohit added.

England scored 353 and 145 in the two innings of the Test match. India scored 307 in the first innings and managed to chase 192 required in the second innings to win the Test match. Jurel and Gill did not look in any discomfort whatsoever while chasing down the target.

The fourth Test will be played in Dharamsala from March 7-11. India are now placed second on the points table with a PCT of 64.58. The table is led by New Zealand with a PCT of 75. England, meanwhile, are placed eighth with a PCT of 19.44.

Also Read: Watch: Rahul Dravid pumped up after Ranchi Test win; shares lovely hug with Shubman Gill, Dhruv Jurel