"Australia Did Well To Knock Our Top Three Batsmen": Rohit Sharma On 'Chahal TV'

Rohit Sharma scored his 22nd One Day International century, his first in 2019 and after becoming a father, but India lost the first ODI of the three-match series against Australia in Sydney on Saturday. Following the match, spinner Yuzvendra Chahal caught up with Rohit Sharma on 'Chahal TV', a series of interviews that he has promised to air throughout the ODI series Down Under. Chahal congratulated Rohit for scoring a hundred after becoming the father of a daughter recently. The Indian vice-captain explained what went wrong for the Men In Blue at the SCG.

"Our plan was to play the new ball cautiously. Both of Australia's new ball bowlers are big exponents of swing bowling. I and Shikhar had watched a lot of videos of these bowlers -- the left-armer bowls in-swing and the right-armer, who claimed four wickets, bowls away from the right-hander. Unfortunately, we couldn't go as per our plans," Rohit said in the video.

After opting to bat, Australia rode on half-centuries by Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb to post a competitive total of 288 for five.

Apart from Rohit Sharma's 129-ball 133 and MS Dhoni's 51-run knock, no other batsman managed to contribute much in India's chase. Australia beat India by 34 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Jhye Richardson led the bowling attack with four big wickets, while Jason Behrendorff and Marcus Stoinis chipped in with two wickets each. Peter Siddle dismissed Kuldeep Yadav (3) to join the party.

Rohit said the Australian bowlers bowled impressively but no batsman gifted them his wicket. "Sometimes, the opposition bowls too impressive. None of the top-three batsmen threw his wicket with a poor shot selection. It's  a learning for us."

Rohit and Dhoni stitched a 137-run stand for the fourth-wicket.

"After three dismissals when Dhoni came to the crease, we planned for a big partnership."

"Australia did well to knock our top three batsmen. It's not easy to chase 280-90 after losing three wickets in quick succession. It was always going to be difficult but we put a strong fightback and took the team to 254," Rohit added.

India will next play Australia in the second ODI in Adelaide on Tuesday. Rohit said he hopes for an improved show in the subsequent matches.

"It's a learning for us. What to do when you have lost top three wickets and how to handle the pressure. We didn't absorb the pressure in Sydney. I hope we play better in the next two matches," he concluded.

On Sunday, India called up all-rounder Vijay Shankar and batsman Shubman Gill for the rest of the Australia ODIs and forthcoming New Zealand tour after KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya were ordered to go back home in disgrace over insensitive comments made about women on a TV chat show.
 

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team Rohit Sharma Yuzvendra Chahal Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), Sydney Australia vs India 2018/19 Cricket