We need to look at our bowling: Rohit
The Hindu
Australia defeated India by four wickets
India captain Rohit Sharma on Tuesday attributed the four-wicket defeat to Australia in the first T20I to their lacklustre bowling performance, an area which has been a cause for concern for the team with the T20 World Cup fast approaching.
Indian batters Hardik Pandya (71 not out), K.L. Rahul (55) and Suryakumar Yadav (46) played brilliant innings to help the hosts post 208/6.
However, an underwhelming bowling display, in the absence of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, and sloppy fielding that included three dropped catches ensured India's defeat.
"I don't think we bowled well. 200 is a good score to defend, and we didn't take our chances in the field. It was a great effort from our batters, but bowlers were quite not there," Rohit said at the presentation ceremony.
"You can't score 200 every day, you need to bat well. Hardik (Pandya) batted really well to get us there. We need to look at our bowling before the next game." The skipper felt the game highlighted the areas which the team needs to work on heading into the T20 World Cup next month.
"There are things we need to look at, but it was a great game for us to understand what went wrong." Australia were sailing to victory courtesy of Cameron Green's 61-run knock and, despite dismissing the opener and taking three more wickets in quick succession, India couldn't defend their big total.
"We know this is a high-scoring ground. You can't relax even if you get 200. We took wickets to an extent, but they played really well. They played some extra-ordinary shots.