India’s captain Rohit Sharma gestures during the third ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and India in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Rohit dismissed any talks of complacency, and asserted that defeats are part of the sport. He also clarified that the Indian unit would take a lot of lessons from the series in an attempt to equip themselves better moving forward.
Sri Lanka scripted a historic series win over India with a 110-run win at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Wednesday to end a 27-year wait for a bilateral series triumph over the neighbours as they closed out the home series 2-0.
The hosts, who had the upper hand in the series going into the third and final game, managed to set the visitors a target of 249 runs and bundle out the men in blue for a mere 138 runs to claim a huge win.
The Lankan spinners wreaked havoc in the final game of the series, much as they did throughout the series, to weave a web of wickets that took the game away from India.
When quizzed about the Indian unit’s difficulty in dealing with the Sri Lankan spin attack, skipper Rohit Sharma revealed that it was;t too much of a concern, but it is something the team would like to work on improving going forward.
“I don’t think it is a concern. But it is something we have to look at individually and as a game plan,” the Indian skipper said.
However, he dismissed any talks of complacency, at least for as long as he was at the helm of the unit.
“It is a joke, when you are playing for India there is never going to be complacency. When I am captain there is no chance of that,” the opener asserted.
He went on to laud the Sri Lankan side for the valiant efforts to pick up the win and close out the series in their favour.
“But you have to give credit to good cricket. Sri Lanka played better than us,” he added.
The Indian unit went with a rather shuffled pack of payers for the series and Rohit stated that each and every player had merited his slot in the camp.
“We looked at the conditions and went with the combinations, there are also guys who need to be looked at and hence the changes,” the skipper added.
He clarified that the Indian unit would take a lot of lessons from the series in an attempt to equip themselves better for games at similar conditions moving forward.
“There are a lot of areas we need to look at rather than the positives from this series because we need to be better prepared when we come across such conditions next time,” the 37-year-old said.
He concluded by stating that defeats are part of the sport and it was a matter of how strong a team can come back following such losses.
“These things happen, series loss is not the end of the world, you will lose an odd series here and there but it is about how you come back after the loss,” he signed off.