Rohit Sharma Dismisses ‘Bazball’ and Responds to Ben Duckett’s Comments

Indian cricket team captain, Rohit Sharma, expressed his uncertainty about the term ‘Bazball’ in the build-up to the fifth and final Test of the ICC World Test Championship series against England in Dharamsala.

“I honestly don’t know what [Bazball] means, whether it is to go and strike, whether it is to go and defend and wait for the loose ball,” Rohit shared during a press conference.

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“I have not seen any wild swinging from anyone, so I don’t know exactly what this term means. But, clearly, England has improved their game since the last time they were here. Credit goes to two of their batters who scored big hundreds and played well. They applied their method to achieve some success, and they got it. But other than that, I don’t know what it means.”

Rohit Sharma hit 31 sixes in the World Cup.

Rohit was taken aback by Ben Duckett’s comments, which suggested that England should take credit for the aggressive cricket played by the opposition, particularly after Jaiswal’s century.

“There was a guy called Rishabh Pant in our team, probably Ben Duckett hasn’t seen him play,” Rohit quipped.

On the topic of India’s probable XI for the Dharamsala game, Rohit remained tight-lipped. However, he hinted that if conditions were favourable for fast bowling, India might consider bringing in a third pacer.

“If we feel the weather is going to be like this, there is a good chance [to play a third seamer]. We’ve not yet completely decided on it, but there is a good chance,” Rohit stated.

“The last time we played a Test match here was in 2017 against Australia and both seamers and spinners were in play, but I’m not too sure [about this Test]. It’s a different weather here, I don’t really know too much about it.”

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“But looking at the pitch right now, it looks like a good pitch. Obviously, you have to expect, when there’s weather like that, that there will be some movement, and maybe later on as the game goes on there will be some turn or something like that.”

The third Test begins in Dharamsala on Thursday, 7 March. England have named their playing XI for the Test with one change to their line-up from the Ranchi Test match.