"It was not as if I wanted to throw my wicket away" - Rohit Sharma after SL vs IND ODI series
Indian captain Rohit Sharma has insisted he was not trying to "throw" his wicket while batting aggressively against Sri Lanka in the recent ODI series which Team India lost 2-0. Instead, he wanted to push the momentum and score as many runs as possible.
Rohit scored two half-centuries and a quickfire 35 (20) in the three matches, top-scoring for India in each game. His batting strike rate of 141.44 - the highest in the series - meant India got regular fast starts but the middle order failed to capitalize on them as batting got more difficult against spin on the slowing surfaces.
"My personal effort was to ensure that I score as many runs as I could," Rohit said in the post-series press conference, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. "It was not as if I wanted to throw my wicket away after the powerplay. I wanted to continue the momentum and intent, but I unfortunately got dismissed while trying to play a few shots. My batting plan is pretty simple and straightforward."
"I knew that the runs that will be scored during the powerplay will be critical. I knew that the wickets will get a little slow after that, the ball will turn a bit and even the field is spread out. When there are only two fielders outside the ring, we had to take our chances. I took those chances whenever I felt that I could put the bowler under pressure. All the runs that you score over and above that, it benefits the team to play the remaining 40 overs," he added.
Sri Lanka used the opposite strategy by being cautious in the powerplay and making sure at least one of the top three batters scored big to let the middle order work around him.
"They didn't use the feet as much as we expected" - Rohit Sharma on Sri Lankan batters
In hindsight, the hosts' tactic worked better because they didn't get bowled out even once while India lost all 30 wickets in the three ODIs. However, Rohit felt that the difference was also in the approach against spin, with Sri Lanka doing much better with the unorthodox shots.
"They were consistent with sweeps, taking their chances," Rohit said of Sri Lanka's batters in the same interaction. "There weren't a lot of runs scored down the ground. They didn't use the feet as much as we expected. It was about using sweeps and piercing that deep square leg and midwicket field. That is something we failed to do as a batting unit. We didn't play enough sweeps, reverse sweeps, or paddle sweeps, and used our feet too much. That was the difference."
"All in all, 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," he added.
After losing 27 of the 30 wickets to spin, India will need a hard introspection ahead of the Champions Trophy next year which will likely treat them with similar surfaces.