India have been virtually knocked out of the Asia Cup after losing their second consecutive Asia Cup Super 4 game on Tuesday, 6 September. On the day, India lost to Sri Lanka in a nervy game where India leaked runs in the final few overs, after having made a comeback into the game. India captain Rohit Sharma said that he wanted to bowl Deepak Hooda to take advantage of the bigger boundary, but could not give him a chance due to the right handers in the crease.
“With the ball, it was a good effort to take it to the last over considering the start they had. The spinners bowled aggressively and got wickets in the middle overs, but Sri Lanka held their nerve. We thought with the bigger boundary we could use the spinners well. But the plan didn’t work out. Their right-handers batted for very long. I thought of bringing in Hooda and using the longer boundaries. But I was happy with the three seamers,” Sharma said.
Stating that the team just fell on the wrong side on Tuesday night, Sharma said that India were 10-15 runs short.
“We just ended up on the wrong side, as simple as that. We could have capitalised on the first half of our innings. We fell 10-15 runs short. The second half wasn’t good for us. The guys who were out in the middle can learn about what shots can be played. These things can happen. Losses like these will make us understand what works as a team,” the captain said.
Asked about the Indian bowling combination of just three pacers, Sharma said that ideally, the team would have liked to have Avesh Khan, but his health did not improve enough for him to play.
“Unfortunately Avesh hasn’t turned up well in the fitness tests. He didn’t respond well because he was quite sick. Ideally the combination we would play is four seamers, but three seamers was something we wanted to try before the World Cup. We need to find answers as a team, like where we are with five bowlers. We now know where we stand with this combination,” said Rohit Sharma.
“No long term worries, we have lost only two games back to back. Since the last World Cup, we haven’t lost too many games. These games will teach us. We wanted to put ourselves under pressure in the Asia Cup,” he further added.
India are yet to play a full team ahead of the T20 World Cup and Rohit said that the unit was looking for answers. However, he said that one should not be digging too much in these results because India have not lost many games after the 2021 T20 World Cup.
“We are still looking for answers. These were two back to back games of close finishes. Have to give a lot to Arshdeep for bowling at the death and for the way he bowled. Chahal and Bhuvi are the senior pros and have been doing it for a while. I need to get answers from the younger ones,” the captain concluded his post match presentation.
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