 "India captain Rohit Sharma in action during the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo. AP")
India captain Rohit Sharma admitted his players weren’t “brave enough consistently” in tackling the spin challenge in the ODI series against Sri Lanka and hinted at picking different individuals for different conditions if needed.
India suffered a 110-run hammering in the third ODI on Wednesday, their final match of the tour of Sri Lanka, after getting bowled out for a palty 138. Left-am spinner Dunith Wellalage, who was adjudged the ‘Player of the Series’, spun the hosts to victory with a haul of 5/27 after opener Avishka Fernando’s 102-ball 96 helped them post a competitive 248/7 on the board.
This was three days after leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay, a last-minute replacement for injured all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga, bowled the Lankans to a 32-run victory with a career-best haul of 6/33.
Sri Lanka, as a result, clinched a 2-0 series victory — their first in bilateral assignments against India since 1997 — with the series opener having ended in a tie.
“We need to think which players could play on these kind of tracks but you also need to give consistent chances as it’s not easy to perform in one or two chances. It was a bad series and we need to accept it,” Rohit made no bones about how it panned out for his team.
“We have to accept where all we made mistakes. We couldn’t show more intent and aggression against spinners, and they put pressure relentlessly on us,” the skipper said after his team were shot out for 138 in pursuit of 249 in the third ODI here on Wednesday.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWhat his team singularly lacked was individual plans from the players.
“It’s about individual plans. We have had these issues in the past as well where the ball has spun a little bit. I can see the guys training hard in nets and they are trying to play different shots but we need to know how to keep momentum. We failed thrice. We should have won that first game which ended in a tie,” he noted.
The genial captain in a polite yet firm manner indicated that players who could show adaptability in challenging conditions will be preferred.
“We know what the problems are. We will let players know this is what we want and if we have to be different in terms of choosing personnel, we will do that,” the skipper was straight as an arrow in his message.
“I don’t think we were brave enough throughout the entire series and hence we lagged behind throughout. We will address these issues,” the skipper added.
With PTI inputs