IND vs NZ: "I don't think that's fair," Rohit Sharma defends Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin after Pune defeat

Captain Rohit Sharma backed under-fire duo of Ashwin and Jadeja.

India test captain Rohit Sharma has thrown his weight behind spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin after his side suffered a shambolic 113-run defeat against New Zealand in the second test of the series in Pune.

The Black Caps scripted history in Pune by sealing their maiden test series win in India. This also meant India suffered their first home test series loss since 2012.

The Asian Giants were outplayed in Pune, where the Tom Latham-led side took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match test series.

On a spin-friendly track in Pune, where Mitchell Santner took 13 wickets, the Indian great spin duo of Jadeja and Ashwin performed disappointingly, combining to take only eight wickets.

There’s too much expectation on Jadeja and Ashwin: Rohit Sharma

Following India’s disastrous home series defeat, Rohit defended both his premier spinners, saying that both have carried huge responsibilities on their shoulders and that he isn’t looking too much into one bad series of the duo.

“I mean, see look, there is too much expectation on those two guys. Every game they play, they are expected to take wickets, they are expected to run through the team, and they are expected to win Test matches for us. I don’t think that’s fair, it’s the responsibility of all of us to make sure that we get Test match wins, not just the two guys,” Rohit Sharma said of Ashwin and Jadeja.

“Of course, by their standards, they know where they stand and what they haven’t been able to do or what they haven’t done really well. But again, both of them have played so much cricket here and have such huge contributions to our success of having that home streak of 18 series [wins]. These two have played a major role in that. A couple of series, I am not going to look into too much, especially with those two guys,” the 37-year-old added.

It’s the same with the bowling unit as well: Rohit Sharma

The 37-year-old Rohit highlighted that all the bowlers should share responsibilities among themselves rather than expecting only Jadeja and Ashwin to do the heavy lifting all the time at home.

“They know exactly what happens and sometimes they are allowed to have some bad games here and there and not go by that expectation that this is the opportunity for me to take wickets and run through the opposition. That’s not going to happen every time. So you got to be ready with the other guys also to step in,” the Indian captain said.

“Like we keep talking about with the batters it is not the responsibility of a few individuals, it is the collective batting unit that needs to come together,” Rohit said. “So it’s the same with the bowling unit as well. If Ash doesn’t do well, it’s Jadeja who needs to come to the party or Washy [Washington Sundar] or Kuldeep [Yadav] or Axar [Patel], those guys,” Sharma concluded.

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