India opener Rohit Sharma on Thursday defended playing the pull shot that led to his dismissal on 36 in the first Test against England, saying if he sees the ball in his areas, he "has to play his shots".
A well-set Rohit pulled a short ball from pacer Ollie Robinson straight into the hands of Sam Curran on the fine leg boundary on day two of the first Test.
"Like you said it is my shot, so I have to play shots, as we saw in the first hour of play, we did not get any loose balls and their bowlers were quite disciplined," Rohit said after the second day's play, which was called off early due to rain.
Rohit said even he feels disappointed by the timing of his dismissal, which came at the stroke of lunch.
"So, you have to take your odd chances when the ball is there, you got to punish them. Of course, you know, when it's around the time of close of play, you feel disappointed and that is what I am feeling about it (the dismissal)," he added.
India ended the rain-hit second day at 125/4 as veteran English pacer James Anderson (2/15) wreaked havoc with his fiery spell.
"But you got to be ready to play your shots as well, because their bowlers are so disciplined, you hardly get anything. So, you got to put the balls which are your shots and in your area you got to put that ball away and that is what me and KL (Rahul), when we were batting, we were on that thought process.
"If feel like taking a couple of shots on, we are not going to shy away from that, we will play those shots. While doing that if you get out; I mean yes you feel disappointed, but you know there is very thin line between getting out like that and that same delivery or same ball, if it… the catch was slightly away or five yards left and right of the fielder, it could have been either way as well."
The openers shared a 97-run stand before the mini collapse happened with the visitors losing four wickets for 15 runs.
"You got to think positive and that's what my mindset was. I know it was around lunch time but if I see the ball in my area, I have to play the shots," Rohit added.
