Team India suffered a six-wicket defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in a crucial Asia Cup 2022 Super-4 encounter at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday (September 6).
With this loss, the Men in Blue are now on the brink of Super-4 elimination from the showpiece tournament.
Speaking after the game, India skipper Rohit Sharma said he doesn’t think his team should start worrying and is lagging behind in multi-nation tournaments.
"I don't think we are lagging behind anywhere (in multi-nation tournaments). The quality is there within the team, I think somewhere down the line, when there is a multi-nation tournament, pressure is more. In bilaterals, you play 3-5 matches against a single opponent, there you have the chance to read the mindset of the opposition. But when you play tournaments like World Cup, Asia Cup, the challenge is in playing against different teams," said Rohit in the post-match press conference.
"We have talked about this in our dressing room, we have talked about how we can stay ahead of the game. Unfortunately, we did not go to the semifinals of the T20 World Cup last year, we have lost two matches here in Asia Cup. But it is a challenge for us, every player on our team knows the challenge. But if you look at our history in ICC tournaments, you can see that we have played semi-finals, final and we have also won the final in the past. I do not think, we need to think too much about it. Our work is to help players understand how to make better decisions under pressure situations," he added.
According to Rohit, two defeats don’t have his side a bad one as they have played consistent cricket in the shortest format after last year’s T20 World Cup.
"There is no worry. If you lose two matches, it does not mean that you start worrying. In our dressing room, such talks don't take place. We have played many matches after the World Cup and we have won so many, just because we have lost these two matches in the Asia Cup, I do not think there is a reason to worry. Experienced batters get out and experienced bowlers are taken for runs, this all is normal and it keeps happening."
"I do not think we should start worrying. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been playing for so many years, he has won so many matches for us at the death. 1-2 bad games do not mean that we start judging him," the captain remarked.
Coming to the match, India posted 173/8 in their 20 overs on the back of skipper Rohit Sharma’s 41-ball 72.
In reply, the Island Nation got off to a flying start as the duo of Pathum Nissanka (52 off 37) and Kusal Mendis (57 off 37) put on 97 runs for the opening wicket.
While Sri Lanka suffered a mini-collapse in the middle overs and slipped to 110/4, the start was so good that they were very much in the chase. In the slog overs, captain Shanaka (33* off 18) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (25* off 17) produced stunning cameos to take their team over the line with one delivery to spare.
"Our team is almost 95 per cent settled. There are just a few changes that will happen. That's about it, talking about experiments, we wanted to try out some different things. If you look at the combination that we have been playing before the start of the Asia Cup, it was with four seamers, two spinners and the second spinner was an all-rounder. But I always wanted to try and find answers on what happens if you play with three seamers," said Rohit.
"When you are playing games like these, against quality opposition, you have to challenge yourself. We just wanted to try and see what happens if we play three seamers, in hindsight, the fourth seamer that was here was not available for selection for the last two games because he was sick. There are a lot of questions that we need to answer, we found some answers in the last few series. After this, we have two more series to play, I do not know when the team will be announced for World Cup, till then it is not announced, we can certainly try a few more players," he concluded.
(With NDTV inputs)
