Mohali: Team India skipper Rohit Sharma said that he wants to utilise Ravindra Jadeja's batting a lot more in future, in order to create room for putting to test young players.
"Honestly as a captain, I want to utilise his batting a lot more in the future. I hope I get that opportunity as well because we have got a lot of young players who we also need to see. But Jadeja seems to be right up there in my mind at least to get best out of him," he said in a virtual press conference.
"Again in all three facets of the game - bowling, batting and fielding - he is pretty good. He gives so much to the team and brings so much balance to the team as well. So definitely he is one of the top players for me," he added.
Sharma was replying to a query on where he sees Jadeja in the international hierarchy of all-rounders after his superb performance in the match where he hammered an unbeaten 175 in India's first innings and took 9 wickets in it.
Asked whether he considers Ravichandran Ashwin as an all-time great after surpassing Kapil Dev's 434 wickets haul in Tests, Sharma said, "For me at least he is definitely an all-time great because he has won us so many matches."
Asked how challenging is to keep the benchers motivated, Sharma said: "This is one of my challenges and one of my responsibility that I want to take it up on me to create that bench strength as much as possible, especially in the absence of Cheteshwar Pujara and others. There are a lot of new faces. I think it's going to be my biggest challenge. More than winning games, what will be important for me is how I approach those guys sitting outside and how I can get them in good frame of mind. Also check how they perform once they get an opportunity."
On lower order contribution by Mohammad Shami and others, Sharma said it was very crucial in test matches for them to come to the party. "I remember it was back in 2015 when Virat took over as the captain we wanted to create a strong lower order contribution and a strong foundation. For that to happen, we kept emphasising a lot on how important it is for all the bowlers to go and bat, and try to improve one or the other skill if possible."
"I think we're seeing that now where we are getting to see a lot of guys who bat down the order are contributing. Lord's test match against England last year was the best example where Bumrah and Shami created that huge partnership which put us in winning position," he said. (UNI)