India captain Rohit Sharma has come out hard at England opener Ben Duckett for his remarks on opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal ahead of the fifth match in Dharamsala. The Indian skipper attended the press conference on the eve of the series finale at the HPCA Stadium and was asked about Duckett's comments on Jaiswal for England deserving "some credit" for the Indian Southpaw's attacking batting.
Rohit hit out and said that the English opener has probably not seen Rishabh Pant batting then. "There was a guy called Rishabh Pant in our team, probably Ben Duckett hasn't seen him play," Rohit said in his response.
While Jaiswal has been flying high with his jaw-dropping knocks which also include two double centuries, Duckett made a statement that England should "take some credit" for the way the opposition batters are now batting differently. "When you see players from the opposition playing like that, it almost feels like we should take some credit that they're playing differently than how other people play Test cricket," Duckett had said during the press conference in the third Test in Rajkot.
England's former skipper Nasser Hussain also criticised Duckett for his statement. "He (Jaiswal) has not learnt from you. He's learnt from his upbringing, all the hard yards he had to put in growing up. If anything, lads, look at him and learn from him. I hope there's a little bit of self-introspection going on. Otherwise, it becomes a cult, and at times Bazball and this regime has been described as such, where you cannot criticise within or externally," Hussain told Sky Sports.
Meanwhile, the Indian skipper also spoke about the importance of domestic cricket in his press conference. "Players need to play domestic cricket unless their medical team has given a certificate - it's important, it's for everyone. I saw the Mumbai vs Tamil Nadu game, it's crucial to give importance to domestic cricket which is the core," he added. The debate for IPL's priority over domestic cricket has taken centre stage ever since Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were absent from the Ranji Trophy scene. While Iyer has returned to the red-ball tournament as he featured in the semifinal for Mumbai, Kishan has returned to 20-over cricket at the DY Patil T20 Cup.
