With India set to lock horns with the West Indies in a three-match T20I series, starting on Wednesday, captain Rohit Sharma addressed the media on the eve of the first match.
Former skipper, Virat Kohli's form of late has been a matter of concern as the star India batter has not been in his groove. Criticism has been thrown away at the former India skipper as the dry spell continues to extend further.
Pressure seems to be mounting on the batter, who was once termed as the 'Run-machine'. However, Rohit Sharma dismissed the questions surrounding Kohli's lean patch and suggested the media not to read too much into it.
Speaking at the virtual press conference, Rohit backed Kohli and stated that his predecessor is in a great mental space.
"I think it will start with you guys (media). If you guys can keep quite for a while, then Virat Kohli will be fine and everything will be taken care of. He is in a great mental space and he has been part of international cricket for more than a decade. When someone has spent such a long time in international cricket, they know how to handle pressure situations," Rohit replied when asked about Kohli in the virtual press conference.
"I think it all starts from you guys, if you can keep it quiet for a bit, everything will fall in place," he continued.
On Team's focus moving to International Cricket
With the IPL 2022 mega auction now done and dusted, Rohit added that the team's focus is currently on international cricket and while playing for India, no emphasis will be given to the franchise-based competition.
"It was understood that guys will go through ups and downs, some emotional feeling within themselves on which team they will play for in the IPL. But that was done the day before yesterday, we had a great meeting with everyone and we asked them to focus on the color blue for the next two weeks," the 34-year-old stated.
"There's no consideration of IPL. What matters is where they are going to bat for India, not for their franchises. We will not focus on what will happen in IPL. We need to sort out things here and get it right. Guys have been spoken about what kind of roles they are expected. The mindset needs to be there about what fashion they will play in. They have been given clarity. It's up to them to adapt and get the maximum out of themselves," Rohit concluded.