Hyderabad: India captain Rohit Sharma has come out in support of pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel with the duo struggling for form in the Australia T20I series. He was also full of praise for Suryakumar Yadav who played a series-winning knock on Sunday for India against Australia.
India won the T20I series 2-1 against the World Cup champions with a six-wicket win on Sunday, but both Bhuvneshwar and Harshal were quite expensive, leaking more than 12 runs per over in the series.
Skipper Rohit, however, has backed his pacers to find form before the T20 World Cup.
“It’s important that we give him (Bhuvi) that space because when you have a guy like him in in the team and the quality that he brings, we know that he’s had more good days than the bad days in the last so many years.
We’ve been working on some plans, and hopefully, we can give him more options to bowl in the death. And then he’ll be as good as he was before,” said Rohit in the post match media interaction.
Read: India’s death bowling latest World Cup headache even as Men in Blue clinch T20I series
Bhuvneshwar has proven expensive especially in death overs recent but Rohit feels the pacer is not short on confidence.
“I don’t see that he is short in confidence. It’s time for us to show that faith in him and keep backing his skillset
From our side, we are trying to work out what are the things we can do because when you’re bowling in the death you can’t be predictable. You need to have options to bowl on both sides of the ground and set the field accordingly.
“And someone with that experience it’ll be easy for him to grasp all that knowledge.”
The India captain added that Harshal, who recently returned from an injury and gave away 99 runs in eight overs in the series, will be not judged on how he performed against Australia.
“Harshal is an important player for us without a doubt. Coming back after an injury is never easy. He missed cricket for close to two months. It’s not easy (to come back), so we’ve not judged him on how he is performing in these three games, because we know his quality.
“He has bowled some really tough overs for us in the past and also for his franchise. It’s important to keep showing that faith and I’m sure that you know he’s also trying to rectify those mistakes and he’s not too far from his best.”
Read: Kohli back to winning ways, as core of Indian batting begins to regain shape
While the batting unit performed well, the bowlers struggled and the fielding from the side was also substandard.
“Bowling is the main focus. Fielding is one aspect which will never stop. We want to keep improving as a fielding unit all the time.”
Suryakumar Yadav played a special 69-run knock to pave the way for India’s victory alongside Virat Kohli, who also scored a half-century in the third game.
“When it comes to Surya we all know his quality. He can play the shots all over the ground. And that is what makes him special,” adds Rohit.
“He is just getting better and better. And today was an exceptional innings, to come out and play the innings that he played.
“We were two down in the powerplay and to take the game away literally from the opposition was a fantastic effort and not to forget it. You know, Virat on the other side as well. What a crucial partnership (between Surya and Kohli).”
With PTI inputs
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
