India’s captain Rohit Sharma was delighted with the performance of his team after they defeated West Indies by 17 runs in the third T20I at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Sunday and claimed the series by 3-0.
India had an inexperienced middle-order batting order and Rohit was happy that they were able to stand tall to the challenge.
The likes of Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer were able to deliver the goods for the team. Thus, the hosts were able to tick the right boxes in the limited-overs series against the Windies as they won all the six matches.
India posted a par score of 184 runs after Kieron Pollard won the toss and elected to bowl first in the third T20I. In fact, at one stage it looked like India will come a cropper to reach 150 but Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer were able to score 86 runs in the final five overs, which is the most for India in the T20I format.
Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation, “The team that used to chase, there are not many people here from that squad. We wanted to bat first and chase as well. Because our middle order is fairly new. Happy with the series. Pretty much got everything that we wanted. We do understand we are very young as a team. We are still a good chasing side, but a lot of the players are missing. So we wanted the guys to understand how to bat in pressure situations. It was pleasing to see guys bailing the team out from situations. Good sign moving forward as a group and something to be proud of. Biggest take away from the ODIs was the middle order making it count”.
Subsequently, Harshal Patel and Shardul Thakur were able to restrict the opposition when 37 runs were required off the final three overs. Rohit was impressed with the pace battery as it doesn’t have a lot of experience but they were still able to hold their nerves in tight situations of the game. However, Rohit admitted that the team needs to work on its fielding as they had missed their chances.
Rohit added, “I was very impressed with our seam bowling in ODIs. And even here. Harshal is new. Avesh is on debut. Shardul is in and out. So challenge for us was to give them game time and see how they respond. When you play against a team like West Indies, you can test your batting and bowling. They bat very deep. It was a good challenge to defend in both games. Few guys miss out for the Sri Lanka series because we want to keep them fresh. But we have the World Cup in mind and we are trying to give game time for individuals. Sri Lanka will be a different challenge. But I am not someone who looks at the opposition, I would like to see what we can do as a team. Ground fielding, catching is something we can correct. Hopefully we can tick that box as well”.
India will now host Sri Lanka for three T20Is and two Test matches.
