Indian captain Rohit Sharma criticised the bowlers after they failed to defend 208 runs in the first T20I against Australia on Tuesday, September 20, in Mohali. The tourist chased down the target with four balls to spare, scoring 55 runs in just 20 balls.
After Cameron Green gave the Aussies a perfect start in the powerplay, Matthew Wade (45* off 21) ran riot with the bat at the PCA IS Bindra Stadium. The southpaw hammered the Indian bowlers, who once struggled to hit the right line and length in the final overs.
With the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 scheduled to start in less than a month’s time, Rohit Sharma looked worried with his bowling troop. Speaking at the end of the game, the Indian captain highlighted:
“You can back yourself to defend 60 runs in the final four 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.”
Batting or Bowling – India's biggest weakness?#INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/L61wafHwbD
— CricFit (@CricFit) September 20, 2022
He added:
“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.”
“We didn’t take our chances in the field” – Rohit Sharma
India were ahead in the game until the 15th over before Wade launched the carnage. Harshal Patel, who returned after an injury lay-off, conceded 49 runs, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave away 52 runs.
This will certainly have the Indian think tank worried with the T20 World Cup approaching thick and fast. Rohit Sharma pointed out that this game will help them understand where they lack as a team ahead of the global T20 competition.
“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. There are things we need to look at, but it was a great game for us to understand what went wrong,” Rohit Sharma concluded.
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