Indian captain Rohit Sharma was quite clear as to his focus ahead of the Bangladesh Test series - win it - as simple as that. Rohit stressed it a couple of times in the pre-match press conference ahead of the series opener against Bangladesh in Chennai that the team's focus is to win and not what the opposition is saying or thinking as he conveyed that in his usual witty style on Tuesday, September 17.
"Sab team ko India ko harana hai. India ko harane mein maza aata hai. Maze lene do unko (Everyone wants to beat India. They get a kick out of beating India. Let them have fun)," Rohit said when asked to react to his opposite number Najmul Hossain Shanto's remarks.
"Our job is to try and win and not to think about what the opposition is thinking about us. When England came here, a lot was said in press conferences and stuff but we didn't focus on that. How do we win games and get closer to positive result was important for us. And that will be our main target yet again and not think about the team we are playing against," Rohit added. The video of his response can be watched here (from 17:55).
Shanto, a day before Rohit's presser said that Bangladesh will try to win both Test matches as the team is confident after what they did in and against Pakistan.
Rohit, on the other hand, said that every match played for the country is important regardless of the opposition when asked if this series was a dress rehearsal for the Australian tour.
"At the end of the day, you are playing for your country. So, there's no dress rehearsal kind of stuff happening here," Rohit said. "Every game that we play is important and every game becomes important because what is at stake. World Test Championship table is still quite wide open and you want to win every game. It doesn't matter where we play in two months' time, we want to win here, we want to win this Test match."
The two-match Test series will kick off on September 19 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
