‘You’ve got to give him enough room’ - Rohit backs newcomer before the Ahmedabad Test

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Srikar Bharat, who has filled in for Rishabh Pant after the latter's accident, has excelled behind the stumps, but has scored merely 57 runs at an average of 14.25 in the series.

While Jharkhand’s Ishan Kishan, who is also in the squad, might be considered a closer fit to Pant given his batting abilities, Rohit looked to back Bharat in the near future.

"Speaking about Pant, it’s a big miss. We all know what he can do with the bat, and also the keeping, the last couple of years he’s kept well for us on turning pitches," Rohit added.

"It’s a big miss. When we knew he wasn’t going to be available for us, that was one of the reasons we got Ishan in because obviously he’s a left-hander, can play attacking cricket.

"But speaking about Bharat. He has spent a lot of time in domestic cricket, played a lot of Ranji Trophy, India ‘A’ team cricket, Zonals and scored a lot of runs. So it will be slightly unfair to judge him on these pitches."

Rohit said that he’d assured Bharat of his place at the beginning of the series.

"If someone’s making a debut in the series, you’ve got to give him enough room or enough innings for him to set himself up for a big score.

"That is something that I spoke to Bharat at the start of the series, do not worry about what kind of pitches we play on, or what challenges are ahead, you’ll get enough time to prove yourself, because these pitches are not easy.

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"If you’re playing on pitches such as these, you’ve to be ready for guys failing in some innings as well. And you’ve got to back those guys. And that is what we’re doing with KS (Bharat). He has a lot of runs in domestic cricket, has experience, and he’s a good keeper.

"I spoke to Ishan as well, when he gets a chance, he’ll get a number of games, he won’t be dropped after a couple of Tests. And that’s what we’re doing with Bharat as well."

After going into the Indore Test with a 2-0 lead, India were humbled by a disciplined Australia. The hosts lost the game by nine wickets.

However, Rohit disagreed with former India coach Ravi Shastri’s take that India were overconfident in the third Test.

"Honestly, when you win two games if people outside feel that we are overconfident, it's absolutely rubbish. Because you want to do your best in all four games. You don't want to stop by winning just two games, it is as simple as that,” Rohit said.

"All these guys, when they talk about being overconfident and all that, especially the guys who are not part of the dressing room, they don't know what sort of talk happens in the dressing room."

The 35-year-old went on to add how the team’s mindset was based around being ruthless to opponents.

"Ruthless is the word that comes to my mind. Not to give an inch to the opposition when they are playing, especially when they're touring abroad. And that is exactly what we have also experienced when we have toured outside. The opposition will never let you come into the game, never let you come into the series. And that is the mindset we have as well.

"We want to do our best in all the games. If it seems overconfident or anything like that to the outsiders, it doesn't really matter to us.

"Ravi himself has been in this dressing room, and he knows what sort of mindset we have when we play as well. It's about being ruthless, not being overconfident."

When discussing Australia’s spin attack, Rohit was full of praise for the up-and-coming Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann.

"Both have looked good. Murphy in the first game got seven wickets and Kuhnemann got a five-for in the last Test.

"So obviously, they have got the potential to exploit these conditions, and obviously when you have an attacking spinner in Nathan Lyon, you need someone from the other end to complement as well.

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"These guys have shown that they can handle the pressure. It’s not easy to come out and get the job done after two losses. But both showed that they had the temperament to handle the pressure in the middle.

"They were very calm. They pitched the ball in the right areas, let the batsman guess and make mistakes. And it really worked for them. They’ve got the potential to play at the highest level and they’ve shown the same."