Indian captain Rohit Sharma admitted they were not brave enough throughout the series against Sri Lanka after losing the second ODI by a huge margin of 110 runs at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Wednesday. With this win, Sri Lanka won the series by 2-0 and registered an ODI series win against India after 27 years.
India was skittled out for a paltry score of 138 runs after Sri Lanka posted 248 runs on the board. The visitors kept losing wickets at regular intervals and could not show any fight against the Sri Lankan spinners.
Rohit Sharma top-scored with 35 runs but none of the other batters could go past the 30-run mark. Dunith Wellalage was the pick of the Sri Lankan bowlers as he returned with impressive figures of 5-27.
India’s middle order failed to deliver the goods in all three ODIs and it led to their downfall against Sri Lanka, who came up with a collective effort.
“It is important to take on the bowlers on such pitches, where the ball is turning and it is tough to score,” Rohit assessed following India’s loss in the third ODI. “It is important to be a bit brave. I don’t think we were brave enough throughout the series to put them under a little bit of pressure. That’s why we were a bit left lagging behind slightly.”
Rohit admitted they were not up to the mark with the bat and they will need to come up with an improved show.
“We all know where we are erring, what we need to improve on. Individually, we have spoken to a lot of players on this topic, that they will get a lot more opportunities to play spin in these conditions,” he said. “On these wickets, where the pitch is slow, where some balls are turning and some are not, you have to go in with a gameplan.
“At the same time, you also need to play your shots. If you think you will defend all six balls, it may not be possible on such a pitch. All in all, as far as the team is concerned, and how I look at it, we need to admit where we have made mistakes, we didn’t dominate against spin. On such wickets, you need to dominate a bit and the Sri Lankan spinners had consistently kept us under pressure in all three games.
“Somewhere, we need to think about what we can do, which players should be given opportunities on such wickets. However, when you’re playing on such challenging pitches, it is also important to have consistency in your team selection. If you give players only one or two opportunities, it isn’t easy for them to manage such situations. We tried. We even wanted to try out a few players. It has been a poor series for us, we accept it. We didn’t play good cricket and that’s why we have the result that we have today.”
India will next take on Bangladesh in a two-match Test series.
