'Pant needs to understand what is required from himself more than any of us telling him'

The unbeaten association between Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal through the second session on the final day of the Melbourne Test would have given India hope that they could go into the New Year's Test still level on the scoreline. But those aspirations were dented severely 28 balls into the post-Tea session when Pant mishit a long-hop from Travis Head - brought on to improve the overrate - straight down the throat of long on. The dismissal opened the sluice gates for Australia, who took the final seven wickets for just 34 runs to claim a 2-1 series lead.

Reacting to what became the inflexion point in how the day eventually panned out for India, Rohit Sharma said he had a mixed reaction to Pant's shot selection, something that had brought him success previously but proved to be his undoing twice at crucial junctures of this Test match. "Look, it's just happened. There hasn't been any discussion about today," the Indian captain said. "But again, look, Rishabh Pant, obviously, he needs to understand what is required from himself more than any one of us telling him. You know, it's about him understanding and figuring out what is the right way to go about it. In the past, he's given us a lot of success doing what he does.

"So, as a captain, you know, there is a kind of mixed reaction to that. Sometimes you want to back that thought of him playing the way he plays. And sometimes when things don't look good, it frustrates everyone. But that is what it is. That's the reality. You know, it's the success and the failure. There needs to be a balance about it. And as a captain, you know, it's very hard to have a conversation when, you know, it has given him a lot of success as well. But it's about him figuring out, you know, what is the right way to do things.

Rohit did, however, emphasise the importance of game awareness. "It's just about the situation as well. Certain situation of the game where if there is a risk percentage, do you want to take that risk? Do you want to let the opposition come back into the game? Those are the things, you know, he needs to figure out himself. See, I know Rishabh for a very long time. And I understand his cricket as well. In the past also, we've had a lot of conversation. So, in terms of conversation, there is no there is no way I can say that I have not had a chat with him or he doesn't understand what the team expects. He understands that. But the things that he does gives him results as well. So, it's just that fine line between telling him not to do those things or telling him to do those things."

India faced a tough task after being set to get 340 to win on the final day even on a fifth day pitch that wasn't particularly unplayable. Rohit revealed that the task was to lay a foundation at the top and then reassess the option of going for the win later over the course of the day's play. But as it turned out, India lost their captain, KL Rahul as well as Virat Kohli in a forgettable first session before Jaiswal and Pant got together for their dogged 88-run stand. By the start of the final session, with the asking rate having climbed above six, the draw seemed the most likely result before India's fortunes nosedived once more.

"Obviously, when you come here chasing 340 in mind, we did that last time around [chased 328 in Brisbane in 2021]. There's no way that we were not thinking of the target. But to get that target, you need to lay the foundation," Rohit revealed. "You need to lay that foundation for the other batters to come and play the way they want to play. We've got guys in our team who can take the game till the end like we did in a few occasions in the past. Unfortunately, when Rishabh got out, obviously, we lost a couple of wickets right after that.

"We knew that it was always going to be tough. Just to be realistic, sometimes I know you want to chase the target, you want to be positive and stuff like that. But you've got to be realistic as well sometimes. Getting six-an-over on that pitch, it seems a little tough. Wicket was slowing down a fair bit [on the] Day 5 pitch. And then look, when we had seven wickets in hand, we were all positive. We were not thinking too far ahead also and not going in our shell as well.

"We wanted to be positive and see where the game goes. The message to all the batters was to just play the situation and play the game and see where it ends up. And then if the situation arises where there is a time where you can enter into that contest of putting the pressure right back on the opposition, we will do that. But we never felt that we had the opportunity to put the pressure there back on the opposition. They bowled a very good spell up front and then obviously losing wickets at regular intervals also held us back a little bit."

'Bumrah has bowled a lot of overs'

India's team selection for the MCG Test will continue to be debated, more so in the context of how it impacted Jasprit Bumrah's workloads. India's pace ace sent down 53.2 overs across the two innings for his nine wickets, taking his series tally to 141.2 overs across four Tests for 30 wickets at 12.83. At one point late on the fourth day's play, Bumrah was even picked up by the cameras stating he couldn't physically get himself to bowl his best as India struggled to separate the last-wicket pair of Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon.

Curiously, however, Rohit revealed after the game that the decision to play an extra all-rounder - Washington Sundar - for a batter - Shubman Gill - was to provide the bowling group with a cushion while extending the batting. While Sundar and Nitish Reddy put on a crucial century stand in the first innings, but between them, they sent down a total of 27 overs across two innings, opening up India's decision making to some scrutiny. Rohit did admit that Bumrah had bowled a lot of overs and managing his workload is critical.

"Yeah, there is [a danger of overbowling Bumrah]," he said. "To be honest, he has bowled a lot of overs. There is no doubt about it. But again, every Test match we play, we keep that in mind. You know, the workloads of all the bowlers, in fact. But again, if somebody is in such a great form, you want to try and maximise that form how much ever you can. And that is what we've been trying to do with Bumrah.

"But there comes a time where you need to, you know, step back a little bit and give him that little bit of extra breather as well. So, we've been very careful. I've been very careful. I talk to him about, you know, how he feels and stuff like that. So, yeah. Those things should be managed carefully and I'm trying to do that on the field.

"Look, I had a chat with him [Gill]. There is no way when you're leaving someone out, for whatever reason it is, you will have a chat and the chat with him was clearly he was not dropped. We just wanted to have that extra bit of cushion in the bowling and hence we opted for an all-rounder which shouldn't weaken our batting line-up. Compromising a batter for a bowler was not something that I wanted to do. We wanted to bat as deep as possible and along with that have the same combination, along with that to have a bowling attack which can take 20 wickets.

"We considered everything and we ended up compromising him [Gill] unfortunately. But again, look, with him there was never a doubt that he was not batting well or he was not scoring runs or anything like that. It was just to get that combination where we can cover both bases, batting and bowling. We opted for that option."

'I don't know how the umpires want to use technology'

Meanwhile, the final day's play also served up a mini controversy involving the use of technology but Rohit opted to underplay it. The said incident occurred late in the day's play when Jaiswal, batting on 84, attempted to pull a short ball from Pat Cummins. As the ball was collected by the 'keeper, the Australians appealed for a caught behind and chose to refer the decision on-field umpire Joel Wilson's not-out call.

While slow-motion replays appeared to indicate a deflection, the Snicko showed a flat line when passing bat and glove. Third Umpire Sharfuddoula went by what he saw as a clear deviation of the ball's trajectory and overturned the on-field decision, effectively hastening India's slide to defeat.

"I don't know what to make of that because the technology didn't show anything, but with the naked eye it seemed like he did touch something," Rohit said. "I don't know how the umpires want to use the technology, but in all fairness, I think he did touch the ball.

"It's about the technology, which we know is not 100% - more often than not we are the ones falling on the wrong side of it...that's where we are unfortunate."