India captain Rohit Sharma believes the new fearless approach adopted by India in the shortest format will result in occasional failures but rubbished the notion that the team played conservative cricket in last year’s T20 World Cup in UAE.
India lost two matches in the league stage of the tournament last year to Pakistan and New Zealand and was knocked out of the competition as a result.
Speaking ahead of the first T20I of the five-match series against West Indies, Rohit said the new approach provides more freedom to players, which has yielded success after the disappointing World Cup campaign, where India was eliminated in the league stage.
"We didn't get the result from the last World Cup but that doesn't mean we played bad cricket all these years and I don't agree we were playing conservative cricket. If you lose one or two matches in the World Cup, it feels like we were doing this and that, we were not taking our chances. It's not like that. If you look at the overall games that we have played leading into the World Cup, we won 80 percent of our games.
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If we were conservative, how can we win so many matches? That's fine that we lost in the World Cup and didn't qualify but that happens. That doesn't mean we are playing with fear, not playing openly,” Rohit said.
Rohit Sharma said that the fans of the Men in Blue need move on as change is the only constant in the game and the team has changed its approach as well. He said that with the new aggressive there would be chances of failure as well, which doesn’t make the team and players bad.
“There are bound to be occasional failures in the way we are playing cricket now, results will not be in our favor but there is no problem in it because we are trying to learn something and trying something different. So, there is scope for mistakes but that doesn't mean the boys are bad, the team is bad. It's just that we are trying to do something new. Everyone has to change with time, we are changing so I think people sitting outside also need to change their thinking,” he said.
Sharma was also asked about how the squad for the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia was coming along and he said that the team is more or less settled with only a few spots up for grabs.
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"There are a few spots in the team which we need to fill and we know what we need to do to fill those spots. We are trying to address these things in all these matches we are playing now. Every series that you play is crucial. Of course, there are World Cups to look after but every series you play for India is crucial because there is something to look forward to all the time. What we achieved in England was special but that's done and we just want to look forward now,” he added.
He also said that the team’s mantra is to get better every day and there is no place for complacency in the side anymore.
"Not to get complacent about what has happened in the past... It's very simple for us, we just need to focus on the present day and try and get the job done. It's important for us to stay in the moment, try and see how we can get the job done. "The goal for this team has always been how we can keep getting better as a team every day," he said.
(PTI inputs)
