Indian Captain Rohit Sharma expressed satisfaction with his team’s performance following their six-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the second match of the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 as he credited the team’s composure, especially during the chase, noting the presence of experience in the dressing room to handle pressure.
“In the chase, as it goes on, there are different emotions that come through. But you have to be ready,” said Sharma in the post-match presentation. “We’ve been in that situation before, and there’s a lot of experience in the dressing room to stay composed. KL and Gill at the end were very composed.”
Sharma, who was instrumental in guiding his team to the win, emphasized the importance of adapting to the conditions, particularly with the pitch being on the slower side. “One game, very hard to make anything out of the track. Not much grass on it, we knew it would be on the slower side, and that is how it played,” he said.
He praised the performances of Mohammed Shami and Shubman Gill. “Very happy for Shami. Long time waiting. We know what he brings for us. The quality he has. Every time we throw the ball at him, he’s got something up his sleeve, and we need guys like him to step up in big moments,” said Sharma, acknowledging Shami’s five-wicket haul in the game.
He also expressed satisfaction with Gill’s contribution, stating, “Gill, we know the class he has. He’s been batting brilliantly of late, and today what he showed us, it shouldn’t surprise anyone. What was good to see was he was there till the end.”
On a lighter note, Sharma joked about a dropped catch by him that could have given Axar Patel a hat-trick. “I may take him for a dinner tomorrow. That was an easy catch, I should have taken that catch, the standards I have set standing in the slips, but these things happen,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s captain Najmul Hossain Shanto acknowledged that early mistakes cost his team dearly.
“I think the first powerplay, the way we batted, the game cost us at that point,” Shanto said. “It was very hard for the lower order to recover. The way Hridoy and Jaker batted was brilliant.”
Shanto also pointed out that missed opportunities in the field, including dropped catches and a run-out, affected the outcome. “If we had taken those chances, the result could have been different,” he added.
On the pitch conditions, Shanto believed that his team was not short of spinners, but they struggled to break the partnership between Hridoy and Jaker. “On this kind of wicket, with the spinners bowling, the ball spinning, Hridoy and Jaker batted brilliantly,” he said. “I don’t think we were a spin bowler short.”
Both captains agreed that the upcoming matches would likely be played on similar pitches, with Sharma stating, “I’m not the curator to tell you how it will be, but there have been a lot of games that have happened here and we’ll come out here on the 23rd and see how it looks.”
