Bangladesh series not dress rehearsal for Australia tour, says India’s Rohit

India are focused on making a strong start to their home Test season and will not view their two-match series with Bangladesh merely as preparation for their tour of Australia later this year, skipper Rohit Sharma said on Tuesday.Rohit’s side begin a busy schedule with the opening match against Bangladesh starting tomorrow, after which they will host New Zealand in three games and then head to Australia in November for five more Tests."Every game is important while playing for the country,” Rohit told reporters in Chennai. "It’s not a dress rehearsal for the Australia series. There are World Test Championship points at stake and we need to start the season on a high. The focus is on winning the Bangladesh series rather than looking too far ahead.”India last lost a home Test series in 2012 when they fell 2-1 to England and have since won 17 consecutive series, losing only four out of 51 matches, but Rohit said his players cannot get complacent."We’re resuming after a long time,” added Rohit, whose side completed a 4-1 win over England in March."When it (the series) starts, we have to see where we stand and take it from there.”Rohit threw his weight behind batsman KL Rahul, who made 86 and 22 in the first match against England in January but missed the rest of the series with injury."Everyone has an up-and-down career. The kind of quality KL Rahul has, everybody knows. The message to him from our side was we want him to play all the games and bring the best out of him,” Rohit said."Unfortunately, he got injured after Hyderabad and didn’t play afterwards. I hope he continues from where he left off. I don’t see any reason why he can’t flourish in Test cricket.”Busy Test scheduleCommenting on India’s busy Test schedule, Rohit reaffirmed their stand to manage the workload of premier pacers including Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj as they have impressive young talents to fill up for them.For the first Test against Bangladesh, India have handed a national call-up to pacer Yash Dayal while Akash Deep retained his spot in the Test side."You want the best players to play all the games, but that’s not possible. You’ve to see what’s best for the team and manage your bowlers accordingly. We’ll monitor that for our bowlers. We’ve managed to do that in the England series. We got rest for Bumrah and Siraj,” Rohit said."So, we will keep assessing them. You want everyone to play all the games, but it’s not in our hands. We saw exciting prospects in Duleep Trophy."I am not too worried about the kind of bowlers waiting in the wings,” he added.The Indian captain praised the performances of batters Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel."They’ve everything that’s required to be a top player for India in all three forms. With time, we’ve to nurture and groom them well. They’re very hungry for success and to play for India,” Rohit remarked."Jaiswal had a great home series when we played last time. Jurel showed what he’s capable of as well, with the bat."Getting the tough runs. Sarfaraz as well, being fearless, not being too worried about what happens outside."You need all sorts of players who are fearless, cautious and responsible as well. We have that mix of everything and it’s a good sign,” he added."They’ve everything that’s required to be a top player for India in all three forms,” Rohit said.