What Rohit Sharma Said About Jasprit Bumrah's Replacement In T20 World Cup Squad

Despite two identical series wins against "quality sides" Australia and South Africa, captain Rohit Sharma on Tuesday conceded that the Indian team still needs to address some areas of concern, especially bowling, ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup. India beat South Africa 2-1 in the three-match T20 International series despite suffering a 49-run defeat in the final game here on Tuesday. They had beaten Australia by a similar margin in the preceding series.

"As a team, we said it at the beginning no matter what happens about the result, there's always room for improvement. Even if we do well in all three departments, we want to keep getting better," Rohit said at the post-match presentation.

"Areas of concerns, we have to look at our bowling, what more options we can find in the powerplay, middle and death.

"We were playing two quality sides, have to go back and see what better we can do. It will be challenging and we need to find answers, still working towards that." 

Rohit said the players need a lot more clarity in terms of what they want to achieve and it's his job to make sure it happens.

He said since several members of the World Cup-bound squad have not been in Down Under, the squad will leave for Australia early to acclimatise to the conditions.

"Lot of the guys haven't been to Australia, which is why we wanted to go early. Play on some bouncy pitches in Perth and see what we can do there. Out of the 15, only 7-8 have been there before, so wanted to make an effort to go there early," he said.

"We've organised a couple of practice games." 

On the absence of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumah from the T20 World Cup due to back injury, Rohit said, "Bumrah is a big miss, but there are a few guys in the reckoning. We'll make the call once we reach Australia." 

Suryakumar Yadav, who was named Player of the Series for his 119 runs, including two half-centuries, from three matches, said, "Haven't thought about Australia just yet but it's a challenge am really looking forward to." 

When asked if he knew he hit 50 sixes this calendar year, he said, "I'm not a stats man, but my friends keep sending me stuff on WhatsApp." 

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said, "Win like this is big for our confidence. Can take a lot from this game. If we look back, in the first game, our batting didn't click. We didn't adapt to the conditions.

"In the second games, we had plans that we didn't execute. Today, we were a lot clearer in terms of the plans and what we were trying to do." 

Player of the Match Rilee Rossouw for his 100 not out said, "It's something every cricketer goes through (coming in on the back of two ducks). I Knew something's special in store. It was special, I'm glad to have been able to contribute."

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Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team South Africa Cricket Team Rohit Sharma Jasprit Bumrah Deepak Chahar ICC T20 World Cup 2022 Cricket