Rohit Sharma, the captain of India, said on Sunday that death bowling is still a concern for the squad heading into the T20 World Cup next month, but he expressed optimism that the bowlers would soon rediscover their rhythm. In the final few games of the Asia Cup, India’s death bowling misfired, which resulted in the team’s early elimination. India failed to defend 208 in the first match of the three-match T20 series as Australia scored 53 runs in the final three overs to win by four wickets. “There are a lot of areas, particularly, our death bowling coming to the party,” Rohit said when enquired about the departments of concern for the team during the post-match presentation.
“Those two (Harshal and Bumrah) are coming after a long time. Knowing their (Australia’s) middle and lower order is tough to bowl at, I don’t really want to look into that. They are coming after a break, they will take time. Hopefully, they can get back in the groove.” Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel are both making their comebacks after lengthy injury absences, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar also made mistakes at the back end. In spite of this, Rohit expressed satisfaction with the team’s overall performance as they defeated Australia by six wickets on Sunday to win the series 2-1.
“We wanted to put up a show, and we did that well. The biggest positive was different individuals stepping up with the ball and bat. When you are sitting back and watching all of that happening, you feel nice as management. Sometimes you can err in doing a lot of things. This is T20 cricket, and the margins of error are very small. I thought we took our chances, we were brave. Sometimes it didn’t come off, but that is a learning we will take.” Virat Kohli, a dependable batsman, led the 187-run chase with a 48-ball 63. When Suryakumar Yadav was hitting home runs, Kohli took a backseat. However, once Suryakumar left, Kohli switched gears and led India to victory. With a four in the last ball, Hardik Pandya then put an end to the situation.
