Rohit Sharma said that the batters did well to post a formidable total against a quality attack but the Indian bowlers were not at their best.
Team India captain Rohit Sharma admitted that his bowlers were not up to the mark while defending the 209-run target against Australia in the first T20I. Australia produced a dominant show with the bat and chased down the massive target with four balls to spare. Cameron Green (61) and Matthew Wade (45*) blew away the Indian bowlers who had a forgettable night with the ball in the series opener as the visitors take a 1-0 lead in the series.
The swashbuckling opener said that the batters did well to post a formidable total against a quality attack but the Indian bowlers were not at their best.
“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 not quite there,” Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
The Indian skipper said that it was a high-scoring ground where nobody can relax on the field even after posting 200 plus on the scoreboard.
“There are things we need to look at, but it was a great game for us to understand what went wrong. We know this is a high-scoring ground. You can’t relax even if you get 200,” he added.
Rohit heaped praise on the Australian batters for their fearless approach with the bat in the mammoth chase.
“We took wickets to an extent, but they played really well. They played some extra-ordinary shots. If I was in that changing room, I would expect to chase that total,” he concluded.
Harshal Patel and Bhuvneshwar Kumar struggled against Wade and Tim David in the death overs as India failed to defend the target.
“You can back yourself to defend 60 runs in the final 4 overs. We were not able to take that extra wicket. That was the turning point, if we would have taken another wicket, things would have been different,” he added.
Rohit said that Hardik Pandya batted well to help them post 200 but the team management has to look at their bowling plans after the defeat.
“You can’t score 200 everyday, you need to bat well. Hardik batted really well to get us there. We need to look at our bowling before the next game,” he concluded.
