Team India skipper Rohit Sharma tried his best to calm down the furore around ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chants at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad during the fourth Test against Australia targeted at pacer Mohammed Shami. On the first day of the Test match last week, which was attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, a video went viral where few spectators were seen calling out pacer Shami and chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’.


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Captain Rohit said that he wasn’t aware about any such incident in the post-match press conference on Monday (March 14). “Absolutely not aware of this. I heard this for the first time and I don’t know what’s happened there,” Rohit said.


WATCH the video of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chants at Mohammed Shami here…



Team India drew the final Test of the four-match series to retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy after winning the series 2-1. On Monday, when Rohit was asked to analyse India’s victory in the series against Australia, he literally brought the house down.


“Chaar Test match. Pura karna hai (analyse) kyaa? Nagpur se yehaan taak. Main toh 3 Test matches se karte aa raha hoon (You want me to analyse again, right from Nagpur to this game. I have been doing that for last three games),” he said.


However, the moment he was asked to rate his captaincy, he did put things into perspective, especially in Tests, where he had led in only six games (tow versus Sri Lanka and four against Australia). “I am still learning as a captain in every game that I have captained. I have captained a lot in T20 cricket, more than the other formats but Test cricket I am only six matches old in terms of captaincy. I am still learning and guys around me have played a lot of cricket and they are there to help,” Rohit said.


So what is his mantra of effective leadership? “Whenever I lead the team, I try to keep it very simple. That’s always been my focus to not try and do something absolutely weird. Just keep it simple because it’s a longer version of the game and you need to keep patience.


“You need to be able to make the right decision and for that you need to stay calm on the field. And those are the things I always think of when I am captaining the team. Still, like I said, I am learning about my captaincy. I am enjoying.”


The biggest aspect is having support of the dressing room. “I am quite enjoying this period of me leading the team. There have been some challenges as well. I was challenged as a captain as well and when you are playing a series like this, you are bound to make mistakes. I did make some mistakes but that’s how you learn and try and not repeat those mistakes again and again. I am still discovering new things about how I want to take the team forward,” the Indian skipper added.


(with PTI inputs)