India succumbed to a five-wicket defeat to Australia in the opening T20I in Mohali on Tuesday. Meanwhile, India's poor death bowling was exposed again, as Rohit Sharma was wary of the same.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma on Tuesday gave credit to Australia for the four-wicket defeat in the opening Twenty20 International (T20I) at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. It was another lacklustre bowling performance by the hosts, which has been a concern for the side, especially with the ICC T20 World Cup fast closing in. Indian batters Hardik Pandya (71*), KL Rahul (55) and Suryakumar Yadav (46) played brilliantly to help the hosts post 208/6. However, in the absence of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, an underwhelming bowling show and bedraggled fielding, including three dropped catches, handed India a five-wicket defeat.
"I don't think we bowled well. 200 is a good defending score, and we didn't take our chances on the field. It was a great effort from our batters, but the bowlers were quite not there. You can't score 200 every day. It would be best if you batted well. Hardik [Pandya] batted well to get us there. We need to look at our bowling before the next game," Rohit stated during the post-match presentation.
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The skipper judged that the match underlined the areas the side needs to work on heading into the T20WC in Australia from next month. "We need to look at things, but it was a great game for us to understand what went wrong," added Rohit. Australia was sailing to victory courtesy of Cameron Green's 61-run knock, and despite getting the opener early and taking three more quick wickets, India couldn't defend the big total.
"We know this is a high-scoring ground. You can't relax even if you get 200. We took wickets to an extent, but they played well. They played some incredible shots. If I were in that changing room, I would expect to chase that total. You can back yourself to get 60 runs in the final four overs. We were not able to take their wicket. That was the turning point. If we had taken wickets, things would have been different," Rohit concluded.
(With inputs from PTI)