Calcutta: Rohit Sharma is not at all perturbed for being dropped down to the fifth position from the No.3 slot of the batting order.
Rohit's logic is simple. "No one, including me, owns any particular batting slot," he said after the penultimate day of the third and final Test, at the Sinhalese Sports Club.
Rohit ended the Test series as the second highest run-getter (202 runs) behind captain Virat Kohli after having notched up his second half-century in the series.
Talking about his preferred batting slot, Rohit said: "If you ask anyone, they are not going to specify the position where I should bat. Nowhere is it written in the world that the No. 4 slot belongs to this person and No. 3 belongs to that person.
"As a batsman, you want to bat as up the order as possible to get more opportunities, face more balls and score big runs. But the management felt I should bat at No. 5 and they came and spoke to me and I was okay with whatever they wanted.
"I cannot have my own preference because it's a team game and you do what the team wants you to. I want to make it clear that I'm comfortable batting anywhere," Rohit emphasised.
He agreed that all the tracks in this Test series have been of different nature. "Well, this series was totally different when we started playing in Galle. The wicket there was completely different.
"But then at the P Sara Oval, the wicket was again different and so is it here at the SSC. When you bat at different positions, you have to have a different mindset. I feel I should have done a bit more with the bat, but I will definitely take whatever I have done," he said.
With Cheteshwar Pujara hitting a superb century in his comeback game, the pressure is back on Rohit to some extent. But he is not at all disturbed.
"The pressure, I feel, will be on the management and the captain to finalise the playing XI, not on me. I have to play my game when I get an opportunity. That's how I look at it."
Despite being dismissed in the second innings by trying to pull Dhammika Prasad, on Monday, Rohit made it clear that he won't resist playing such shots on getting short-pitched stuff from the pacers.
