Are India’s coming generation of batters technically sound? Seeing the series in Lanka where Lankan spinners performed death-dance on Indian batters, the Blues didn’t have an answer. Instead of playing sweeps, reverse sweeps, or paddle sweeps to stretch the Lankan fielding, Indian batters simply tried to hit straight. Did they really think that it was an IPL match going on?
Rohit Sharma Evaluates the India Loss vs Lanka
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma sees this well. According to him, the team should have diversified the shots. Even the Lankan batters, who were cats on paper in comparison to India’s talents, got their success by playing a lot of sweeps. And trust me, those were very effective. The Lankans scored a whopping 70% of their runs in the 3rd ODI through the side of the wickets.
“They were consistent with sweeps, taking their chances. There weren’t a lot of runs scored down the ground. They didn’t use the feet as much as we expected. It was about using sweeps and piercing that deep square leg and midwicket field. That is something we failed to do as a batting unit. We didn’t play enough sweeps, reverse sweeps, or paddle sweeps, and used our feet too much. That was the difference.
Kusal Mendis and Avishka Fernando, who played a big part in Sri Lanka’s win by standing an 82-run partnership, made the majority of their runs ‘square of the wicket’
“If you look at Kusal Mendis and Avishka Fernando today [who put on an 82-run stand], they got a lot of runs square of the wicket. They were using the turn, and sweeping, making the fielder move left and right. They were smart with how they batted and we were not.
India play too defensively against the spin. Even the star batter Virat Kohli continued his struggle against the spin. Rohit thinks the team should have attacked the spin more.
“All in all, we need to admit where we have made mistakes, we didn’t dominate against spin. On such wickets, you need to dominate a bit and the Sri Lankan spinners had consistently kept us under pressure in all three games.”
Indian batters shouldn’t have been scared of the spin. Spin is not a stranger to them. Also, when you play against spin, every player has his own strategy. Rohit thinks that way as well. The players have to be allowed to play the way they want to. But again, getting better at their job does come from the training ground. Indian players didn’t lack in that area, as per the captain.
“It is more to do with individual plans rather than us telling them what to do or what shot to play. All these guys have come here playing so much cricket. All of a sudden to tell them to do things a little different – to play the shot that they are not comfortable with – is not ideal.
“That’s where I have said, it’s all about individual plans, how they want to take the bowlers on, what are the shots they want to play. It starts with your training, When you get to your sessions, I can see the guys are working hard in the nets whenever we get the opportunity to train as well. I don’t see there being a lack of effort when we want to try and play different shots.”
When the team’s batting lineup struggled, the captain showed up most of the time. It’s a difficult job for him to do. Playing as an opener is often stressful, as you need to find quick runs during the powerplay. The pressure rises when you chase. So the job of the openers is to keep a good NRR so that the batters who come after the powerplay can settle in and play effectively. Captain Rohit was good at that. But his companion, Shubman Gill, continued to be a flop.
“I knew that the runs that will be scored during the powerplay will be critical. I knew that the wickets will get a little slow after that, the ball will turn a bit and even the field is spread out. When there are only two fielders outside the ring, we had to take our chances. I took those chances whenever I felt that I could put the bowler under pressure. All the runs that you score over and above that, it benefits the team to play the remaining 40 overs.
“My personal effort was to ensure that I score as many runs as I could. It was not as if I wanted to throw my wicket away after the powerplay. I wanted to continue the momentum and intent, but I unfortunately got dismissed while trying to play a few shots. My batting plan is pretty simple and straightforward.”
India left out in-form Hardik Pandya and players like Sanju Samson, who plays spin so well. When you go to foreign pitches, you need technically sound batters. And Sanju Samson is the most skilled wicketkeeper-batter India have. Yet the Kerala-born player fails to make it to the team.
It could also be blamed on the new coach, Gautam Gambhir. His mantra of building a different team for T20Is, ODIs, and Tests would cost India their best XI in all formats. Suryakumar Yadav and Samson being restricted to just T20Is and Hardik Pandya not being considered for one-day internationals cost the team a lot of depth. This was well evident in Sri Lanka, and it resulted in India losing their first bilateral series in Lanka in 27 years.
Check Out: Rohit Sharma Evaluates the India Loss vs Lanka
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