Rohit Sharma is generally jovial in press conferences. He will crack a joke or pull a familiar scribe's leg but disrespect isn't part of his public discourse. On Friday when he addressed the media after India's nine-wicket loss to Australia, the Indian skipper would have done well to tactfully dodge a ball (read question) rather than attempt to pull it.
Like it happens in India all the time, pitches for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series have been a major part of the discussion and the Indore pitch for the third Test, which lasted less than seven sessions, came in for some major criticism from former India and Australian players.
Led by Rohit, the Indian team management has defended all three pitches and on Friday, the 35-year-old didn't take lightly when reminded about the players' criticism of the surface.
"Former cricketers, I don’t think they’ve played on pitches like this," came the reply which was unbecoming of a player of his stature.
Rohit is perhaps too young to know that yesteryear cricketers played on uncovered pitches.
He then tried to strike a conciliatory note. "I don’t know, man, honestly speaking, this is the kind of pitch we want to play, this is our strength, so when you’re playing at your home, you always play to your strength, not worry about what people outside are talking about. We want to play to our strength, and that strength is spin bowling and that batting depth."