‘Focus on cricket and not..’ Rohit Sharma slams Australian media ahead of 1st Test at Nagpur

India captain Rohit Sharma on Wednesday (February 8) responded to Australian media's unnecessary talks about the Nagpur pitch and said that the focus should be on cricket and not the pitch.

It is to be noted that first Test of much-awaited Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2022-23 is scheduled to begin tomorrow (February 9) in Nagpur and the Australian media have already started raising questions over the quality of Nagpur pitch.

According to Australian media, only the center of Nagpur pitch has been watered and rolled and some areas were left dry as part of a strategy to help Indian bowlers.

"Itna pitch maat dekho, cricket khelo. After all, the 22 guys out there are all quality players," Rohit Sharma said.

The Indian skipper added that the Nagpur pitch would help the spinners and the batsmen will have to rotate strike to score big.

"It is important to have a plan and figure a way. Everyone has a different method. Some like to sweep some reverse some hitting over the bowler. You need to rotate strike and sometimes you need to counterattack,” he noted.

Talking about the four-match series, Rohit said that it is not easy to defeat Australia but Indian players have worked to achieve success in the series.

"We have four solid test matches to play in the BGT and we would want to win the series. It is going to be a challenging series and we have to be up for it. Preparation is the key. If you prepare well, you get results."