India vs New Zealand – Rohit Sharma praises Sarfaraz Khan and Rishabh Pant for their maturity

India were bowled out for 46 on the second day – their lowest Test score at home – and ultimately lost the game by eight wickets. But thanks to Sarfaraz's 150 and Pant's 99, they were able to overcome the deficit of 356.

“When these two bat, everyone is excited because they love playing the game that brought them success,” Rohit told the channel after the game. “You have seen it over time with Rishabh, the way he bats obviously takes some risks but I thought it was a very mature innings. (He) defended good balls, missed few balls and then again.” He encouraged himself to play those shots and that's what he's all about.

“Not to forget Sarfaraz. Sarfaraz too was only playing in his third or fourth Test match (fourth) to show that kind of maturity (was great) and (he was) very clear in his mind what kind of shots he was going to take.” If you have a clear mind , you are in a good place.

Rohit was happy with the determination of the Indian batters in their second innings after New Zealand scored 402.

“When you're 350 runs behind, you can't think much about it. You just have to try to hit the ball, it's that simple. That was the plan,” Rohit said. “We wanted to beat and see where the game went. A couple of big partnerships there were really exciting to see and got us back into the game. Like I said, when you're down 350 it could have easily been a situation where we could have been eliminated before we even got to 350. It was a great performance with the bat, something we were really looking forward to as a team are proud.”

“There are people who have been at a point where we lost a game. We lost a game against England in the first Test and then won four games. Things like this happen. There are still two test matches ahead of us.” And we know exactly what is required of each of us. That's why we will try to do our best.

The second Test of the series begins on October 24 in Pune.