The Indian skipper admitted the side's end-overs problem despite 2-1 T20I series victory over Australia.
Rohit Sharma was pleased with the side’s T20I series victory over defending T20 World Cup champions Australia after a disappointing Super 4s exit from the Asia Cup 2022 in UAE. But the skipper wasn’t fooling himself into believing India have overcome all their issues, especially with their death-bowling woes persisting.
For Rohit, death-bowling remains a thorn in India’s flesh as they continue to build towards the Australian World Cup next month. The captain put the scanner on India conceding 63 runs off the last five overs of the innings in Hyderabad on Sunday (September 20).
India’s batting effort for the deciding T20I saved them the blushes but their expensive ways in the end-overs didn’t evade Rohit Sharma’s eyes, who had seen his team lose the opening game of the series in Mohali after giving away 55 off the last 4 overs.
Throughout the series, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshal Patel and Bhuvneshwar Kumar failed to provide India control and leash on run-scoring in the final stage of the innings. While Bumrah and Patel looked undercooked since returning from their respective injury layoffs, Bhuvneshwar showed unacceptable yorker accuracy off his bowling.
“There are a lot of areas, particularly, our death bowling coming to the party,” Rohit Sharma deliberated on India’s major issue at the post-match presentation after sealing the Australian series 2-1. The Indian skipper, however, was mindful he has back his men since the attack at his disposal throughout the three-match series was India’s first-choice pace group.
“Those two (Harshal and Bumrah) are coming after a long time. Knowing their (Australia’s) middle and lower order is tough to bowl at, I don’t really want to look into that. They are coming after a break, they will take time. Hopefully, they can get back in the groove,” he added.
Watch: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma’s animated celebrations after India’s win in Hyderabad T20I
While he addressed the question on death-bowling with honesty, Rohit Sharma was overall pleased with India’s effort in winning the series after being down 1-0 after the opening match. Given the series offered India a very good opportunity to flex their muscles against a strong opposition, they could revisit their progress ahead of the next challenge – another set of three T20Is versus South Africa, starting Wednesday (September 28).
“We wanted to put up a show, and we did that well. The biggest positives was different individuals stepping up with the ball and bat. When you are sitting back and watching all of that happening, you feel nice as a management.”
“Sometimes you can err in doing a lot of things. This is T20 cricket, and the margins of error are very small. I thought we took our chances, we were brave. Sometimes it didn’t come off, but that is a learning we will take,” he added.
