Sports Desk:

India skipper Rohit Sharma said Bangladesh can ‘have their’ fun before the two-match Test series begins as all the warnings fired by Tigers don’t matter to the hosts. Bangladesh are riding on confidence after their historic series sweep over Pakistan while captain Najmul Hossain Shanto and head coach Chandika Hathurusingha said they are confident of facing the mighty India in their own fortress.

“See, every team likes to beat India. Let them (Bangladesh) have their fun. We need to win the match and that’s what we are here for. We can’t think about what they have to think and say about us. When England came here, they said a lot of things too. But we didn’t focus much on it. We needed to deliver results and that’ll be our aim here as well,” Rohit said at a press conference in Chennai on Tuesday.

“To play good cricket (focus). India have played against a lot of teams recently and our combined aim is to win, rather than keep thinking about the opposition,” he added.

Rohit insisted that India will not commit the mistake of taking Bangladesh lightly and surely didn’t think the series starting Thursday is no ‘dress-rehearsal’ of any sorts for their upcoming series in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.

After Bangladesh, India host New Zealand for three more Tests before touring Australia for the much-anticipated five-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“Every Test match is a big one. We are playing for our country, there is no dress rehearsal happening. Every game is important. Table is quite wide open in WTC. You want to play every game. We want to win here. We focus on winning the Bangladesh series rather than looking too far ahead. We are resuming after a long time,” he added.

“It’s always tough to come back after a break. Good thing is a lot of guys are experienced with that. This is not the first time that we haven’t played for a long time. Which is why it was important to have this camp in Chennai. We came on the 12th and had a good time. So yeah, it is tough, but people are experienced in the sense that they know now to manage themselves well. And guys who haven’t played much Test played, played the Duleep Trophy. So, in terms of preparation, we are ready for the game,” Rohit concluded.