Rohit Sharma admits: 'We fell short with the bat'

In Test cricket, the runs scored in the first innings are crucial for setting the tone of the match. Unfortunately, India has been struggling in this aspect recently. The match in Adelaide marked the fourth time in the last five Tests where India failed to surpass the 200-run mark in the first innings. Scoring only 180 runs in Adelaide, India's performance was reminiscent of their previous struggles - 150 runs in Perth against Australia, 156 runs in Pune against New Zealand, and a dismal 46 runs in Bengaluru against New Zealand. Rohit Sharma shed light on the challenging batting conditions in all these matches, including the ones played at home, which he acknowledged were their own choice. Despite the tough conditions, Rohit Sharma called upon his team's batsmen to step up and perform better in order to avoid similar disappointments in future matches.

"When you come to Australia, I feel the best chance of winning a Test match is by putting runs on the board," he said after India's ten-wicket defeat two hours into day three.

"We were 30-40 runs short with the bat in the first innings. And then there were opportunities when Australia were batting and we failed to take those chances [Travis Head was dropped on 78; he made 140]. And obviously when you miss those chances, it is never easy and it's not going to be easy. The opposition will always make you pay for it and that's what happened. And then in the second innings as well, we thought the conditions were better. Again, we were not good enough with the bat.

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"Of course, in India we didn't bat well enough. We accept that and we agree when we play in India, we are trying to play in very difficult conditions and that is what we wanted. It's not by anyone else's choice. It was our choice and we knew that the big scoring or the highest-scoring games are not going to happen and that is something that has been the case over the last four or five years and we accept that.

"But whenever we travel abroad, the conditions are there to score runs. We have scored runs as well. Like you saw in the first game, we got a lot of runs. Batters got hundreds and stuff like that. But yeah, this game, I am not going to look too much into this game and start worrying about little things.

"I can see guys are putting a lot of effort into their plans, in what they want to do. There has been a lot of conversation around that within the group, which is what I will be looking into. How are we planning, how are we talking within ourselves and what are our plans mindset while playing a test match."

Do India rely too much on Jasprit Bumrah?

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Rohit himself is averaging 11.83 in his last six Tests. Virat Kohli is averaging 26.25 from his last seven games. Runs from the seniors are becoming hard to come by - just as runs in general have been, with the World Test Championship incentivising teams to play on result pitches. So what does a player do to succeed when they face a situation where the ball dominates the bat? The next Test is in Brisbane, which is usually fast and bouncy. So things aren't going to get any easier for the tourists with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy now locked at 1-1.

"Whatever challenges are there and the conditions are tough, we want to battle it out, stay out there and grind it out," Rohit said. "That's what [Yashasvi] Jaiswal and KL [Rahul] did to get that 200 partnership [in Perth]. It was not just trying and swinging the bat. KL especially played close to 200 [176] balls to get his 70 [77]. And Jaiswal as well, knowing his aggressive nature, how he wants to bat, he batted 300 [297] balls to get those 150 [161] runs.

"That shows what we did in Pert - we just left the baggage of the first innings there and then we started the second innings really fresh and got those big runs."

India are also wary of getting into a situation where the strength of their bowling attack depends entirely on the health of their bowling spearhead. Jasprit Bumrah is the series' highest wicket-taker, with 12 strikes at an average of 11.25, but, as Rohit said, he can't bowl from both ends. In Perth, Mohammed Siraj and Harshit Rana were able to back him up. In Adelaide, Rana had a difficult time, conceding 86 from 16 overs at an economy rate of 5.37.

Rohit was asked if India should have picked Akash Deep - who looked sharp in the nets leading into the Adelaide Test - in place of Rana. "Rana didn't do anything wrong in the first Test," he said. "He bowled well, got crucial breakthroughs, and I believe that players shouldn't be let go if they haven't done anything wrong, and nor should it be the case generally. If it happens, how will other members of the team feel secure? They will think 'you give us one game but take us out of the other'. This is not good for any player or team.

"We have to see what the situation is, how the conditions are, and then take a call; but it is not right to judge a player on the basis of their performance in one match. We keep options open for playing any player, because we have to win a Test match. And for that, if we need to make changes, we will do that. But I thought he did not do anything wrong, so it did not make sense to leave him. He also picked up three-four wickets in the practice match, looked in rhythm. It happens sometimes - he came against batters who put him under pressure, but he has the heart. So we need to back such players."