Rohit Sharma silences MS Dhoni’s critics, says he’s Team India’s pillar & will continue to be – Watch

While interacting with the media in the post-match presentation, Rohit Sharma accepted that this loss is going to teach them a lot

By: Aakash Biswas |
December 11, 2017 1:29 pm

It was not a good day for Rohit Sharma on the field as for the first time he captained Team India and they lost the series opener against Sri Lanka at home. The batting line-up failed terribly and India could only score 112 runs in their innings. In return, the Lankans chased down the total in 20.1 overs and won the game.

While interacting with the media in the post-match presentation, Rohit Sharma accepted that this loss is going to teach them a lot. He said,

“As a team, this loss is going to teach us many lessons. Not always you get flat pitches to bat on. So as a team, we want to thrive in these type of conditions and come out as the best. Today was not the ideal day. Hopefully, the boys will learn many things and if we face similar conditions, we will know how to tackle them.”

ALSO READ: India lose first ODI by 7 wickets under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, Lanka lead series by 1-0

Here’s the video:

Batsmen can learn a lot from this loss: Rohit Sharma https://t.co/3itwtatryQ

— Baahubali (@bahubalikabadla) December 11, 2017

He praised the bowling performance of the Lankans and stated that it was not Team India’s day. He said,

“We were aware that the conditions are going to be tough. Sometimes when you are being put in the situation, you have to bat accordingly. I don’t think we play any bad shot. They bowled well in right channels and kept us guessing all the time. The batsmen who got out were meant to play all the time. They used the conditions well so the credit goes to them.”

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While speaking about Bumrah’s no ball which resulted in a lifeline to the Lankans, Rohit said,

“We lost the game with the bat and not with the ball. It’s completely unfair to single out one individual, especially bowlers. We as a batting group failed to tackle the situation. No balls and drop catches will happen as this is the game we play. They are just going out and trying to give their best but I wouldn’t say that it (Bumrah’s no ball) cost us much as we didn’t score much to defend. If we would have been defending 180-190, you could have thought about it. But when it’s 110 or so, you can’t do anything.”

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On being asked about dropping Rahane from the playing eleven, Rohit replied,

“We made it clear way back in our tour to Sri Lanka that he’s our opening batsman and we don’t want to keep changing his batting position as it plays with a batsman’ mind. That’s what the reason he was benched. In the past series, we have understood how he got runs in the past series and we have identified him as a top-order batsman. Moreover, we want to give Manish Pandey, Karthik, Shreyas Iyer a fair amount of games to establish themselves before we start touring abroad.

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Rohit hailed the way MS Dhoni batted under immense pressure. He termed him as the “pillar of the Indian team” and said,

“He has been in such situations many a time and has proved again and again. I never understood that there was no talk of him before this game of being in our plans. Once he scores runs and the whole conversation changes. He has been the pillar of this team for many years now and he’ll continue to be. I wish one of our top order batsmen would have batted with him. We could have ended up scoring more. But we learn the lesson and move forward.”

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The next game is scheduled to be played at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, on December 13.