"Not many people from that squad are here anymore" - Rohit Sharma brings down 'chasing team' tag after India vs West Indies seriesΒ
Reflecting on India's double-whitewash of West Indies on Sunday, skipper Rohit Sharma made a point of removing the long-held "chasing team" tag from his side.
Some brilliant lower-order hitting from Suryakumar Yadav (65 off 31) and Venkatesh Iyer (35 off 19) and a stellar pace-bowling effort helped India win the third T20I by 17 runs.
This was the fourth time in the six-game rubber that India successfully defended a total. The other two matches were won after batting first.
Rohit Sharma used the post-match presentation at Eden Gardens to "clarify" that the team that won this series was quite different from the "team that used to chase."
He suggested that the Men in Blue don't just want to be a good chasing team but also challenge themselves and improve in both departments together.
Rohit Sharma said:
"Yeah, that's what I wanted to clarify. The team that used to chase, not many people from that squad are [here] anymore. For us, as a team, whether we chase or bat first, the challenge was in both departments. We wanted to bat first, post a score and chase as well.
"As a team, we wanted to keep improving because as you see, our middle order is relatively new... Happy with the series. We pretty much got everything [we wanted]. It's just about moving forward and understanding what we need to do as a group and where are the holes we need to fill."
Rohit Sharma was particularly pleased with the efforts from his middle-order and pace department. He said the challenge for the team was to give players from both sections some game time and assess how they perform.
He said:
"Guys getting an opportunity to bat, getting the team out of difficult situations, which is something we saw even in the ODIs - the top-order didn't get many runs and the middle-order came in bailed us out from difficult situations. And the same happened here as well. So a good sign moving forward for us as a group and something that we can be proud of."
Rohit Sharma added:
"I was impressed with our seam bowling in the ODI series. Even here, as you saw, Avesh made his debut today, Harshal is relatively new, Shardul has been in and out of the squad. Not many guys have been playing consistently so for us the challenge was to give them some game time and see how they respond to the situation.
"And when you are playing against a team like West Indies, you can test your bowling and with the bat as well. We know they bat very deep, almost till No. 10 so it was a good challenge for us to defend in both the games and I thought we did that pretty well."
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Like in the ODIs, Suryakumar Yadav emerged as India's top run-scorer in the T20Is with 107 runs at a jaw-dropping strike rate of 194.55. He's certainly made one of the middle-order spots his own.
On the other hand, Harshal Patel emerged as the top wicket-taker in the series with five scalps at 21 apiece.
"We are building up keeping one eye on the World Cup" - Rohit Sharma
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Looking ahead to Sri Lanka's tour of India, which begins on February 24, Rohit Sharma said India will continue to rotate established players and test out fringe ones with an eye on the T20 World Cup in Australia.
He added that irrespective of the opponent, India's goal would be to keep rectifying their mistakes.
Rohit Sharma said:
"Yeah, a few guys missing because we want to make sure all the guys are fresh. We want to keep rotating and see how we can get the guys sitting outside an opportunity as well. Because we are building up keeping one eye on the World Cup."
He added:
"Yeah, Sri Lanka will be a different challenge but I will not look at the opposition, I would look at what we wanted to do as a team. Like I said, there are some things that we need to correct, especially ground fielding and catching - that's something we have to look at. But hopefully, we can tick that box as well."
The first India-Sri Lanka T20I will begin at 7:00 pm IST in Lucknow.