After India’s series-clinching six-wicket victory against Australia in the third T20I in Hyderabad, skipper Rohit Sharma admitted that death bowling remains an area of concern for his team.
The Men in Blue have three home T20Is left against South Africa to rectify the issues before they head to Australia for the T20 World Cup 2022, starting October 16.
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“[Areas of improvement] There are a lot of areas, particularly, our death bowling coming to the party. Those two (Harshal and Bumrah) who came in are coming after a long time. Knowing their (Australia’s) middle and lower order is tough to bowl at. Don’t really want to look into that. They are coming after a break, they will take time. Hopefully, they can get back in the groove,” said Rohit in the post-match presentation ceremony.
In the decider, the visitors rode on half-centuries from Tim David (54 off 27 balls) and Cameron Green (52 off 21 balls) to post 186/7 on the board after being asked to bat first.
Left-arm spinner Akshar Patel once again starred with the ball for India, returning with the figures of 3 for 33 in his four overs.
In reply, the hosts rode on half-centuries from Suryakumar Yadav (69 off 36 balls) and Virat Kohli (63 off 48 balls) to get over the finishing line with one delivery to spare.
“It (Hyderabad) is a special place. We have had a lot of memories with the India team and with Deccan Chargers. It was a great occasion. We wanted to put up a show, and we did that well. The biggest positive was different individuals stepping up with the ball and bat. When you are sitting back and watching all of that happening, you feel nice as management,” Rohit said.
“Sometimes you can error in doing a lot of things. This is T20 cricket, and the margins of error are very small. I thought we took our chances, we were brave. Sometimes it didn’t come off, but that is a learning we will take,” he added.
India’s next T20I assignment against South Africa is scheduled to get underway on September 28 in Thiruvananthapuram.
(With ANI inputs)
