AN EYEOPENER, SAYS ROHIT POST DHARAMSALA HUMILIATION

DHARMASALA: Rohit Sharma’s ODI captaincy began on a sour note as India went down to Sri Lanka by seven wickets in the first of three ODI matches on Sunday. What was more shocking was how the batting line-up struggled to negotiate the Sri Lanka bowlers in pace-friendly conditions.

Rohit said the team will learn from this experience. “We knew conditions were going to be tough but sometimes when you are put in such situations, you have to bat according to it, which means we got to respect the bowlers. I don’t think we played any rash shots. They bowled in the right channel, kept us guessing all the time and batsmen were made to play all the time,” he said.

“Credit should go to the Sri Lankan bowlers, they made full use of the conditions, but as a batting unit, days like these will teach us a lot of things, not always do we get to play on flat conditions and we want to thrive in such conditions and come out on top.”

Rohit admitted it was a new experience. “For us, we were trying to survive in those conditions because we knew that if the initial overs get over, the wicket will get better. But we lost wickets and were also not scoring at a good pace. It’s an eye opener, we will learn from it. It’s a young batting group, the guys, including myself, will learn and play well in these situations next time.”

Defending the low score, Indian bowlers gave the hosts a good start by picking two early wickets. However, a no-ball from Jasprit Bumrah saw Upul Tharanga get a life after he was caught by Dinesh Karthik. Rohit didn’t see it as a big incident.

“We lost the game with the bat and not with the ball. It will be unfair to single out one individual, especially a bowler. We as a batting group failed to tackle the situation,” Rohit said.