The impending high-profile Test series between India and Australia won’t be easy, but India’s skipper Rohit Sharma stated that his team is “ready for the task” against the top-ranked team in the world.

The impending high-profile Test series between India and Australia won’t be easy, but India’s skipper Rohit Sharma stated on Tuesday that his team is “ready for the task” against the top-ranked team in the world. India maintained their strong play and blanked New Zealand by the same margin after a 90-run victory in the third and final match in Indore, following a 3-0 victory over Sri Lanka in the previous ODI series. “Honestly, we don’t talk too much about rankings. It’s about winning games and it won’t be different when we play the Tests against Australia. It won’t be an easy challenge but we’re up for it,” Rohit said at the presentation ceremony.

“In the last six games we’ve done most things right in ODIs. We’re consistent in our approach with the bat and ball.” Yuzvendra Chahal and Umran Malik took the place of Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami, who were rested for the game by India. Despite scoring 385 for nine, Rohit said that the batting-friendly Holkar Cricket Stadium was not secure. In 41.2 overs, New Zealand scored 295 runs to win. “Without Siraj and Shami we wanted to give opportunities to other guys on the bench. We wanted to bring Chahal and Umran in the mix, put them under pressure. We had runs on the board, but on this kind of ground no total is safe,” he said.

Shardul Thakur, India’s top bowler on the day with stats of 3 for 45 from six overs, was lauded by Rohit. “We stuck to the plans, held our nerves. Shardul has been doing this for a while, so some people call him ‘Magician’. Every time I’ve given Kuldeep the ball, he brings wickets. Just need to give him more games under his belt, because wrist spinners get better as they play more.” The India skipper also had words of appreciation for young Shubman Gill, who amassed 360 runs in three matches, including two centuries.

“His (Gill’s) approach is quite similar. He starts afresh. As a young player that is important. He can easily sit on top of his laurels and take it easy, but he doesn’t.” In the match, Rohit also broke his three-year hiatus for a century in ODIs by scoring 101 off 85 balls. “20th century means a lot to me, it was important to play long and take the team to a good total,” he said.