India’s stand-in ODI captain Rohit Sharma said that the batsmen needed to play the situation after the humiliating seven-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka in the first ODI in Dharamshala on Sunday.
The Indian batsmen put up a pathetic show to be dismissed for a low total of 112 runs.
Only three Indian players – Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya – managed to reach double figures as Sri Lanka’s pacer Suranga Lakmal registered career best figures of 4/13.
The Sri Lankan batsmen then survived some initial hiccups to chase down the target with a massive 29.2 overs to spare, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Rohit Sharma urged his teammates to learn from the debacle and put up a better show in the rest of the series.
It is important that we as a team thrive on conditions such as these and come out good. Not everyday will we get flat tracks and today was a good learning curve. You need to understand your game and come out of such situations. Today was an eye-opener and we need to regroup and do well.Rohit Sharma
Praising Dhoni for his fighting knock, Rohit hoped that the other Indian players will learn a thing or two from the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman. Striding to the middle with the hosts struggling at 8/3, Dhoni scored 65 runs off 87 balls with 10 boundaries and sixes.
He’s (Dhoni) done it for so many years and he knows what exactly needs to be done in such conditions. Someone with him could have made the difference and I am not at all surprised by the way he played. He was the only one battling it out.Rohit Sharma
Video Editor: Sandeep Suman
(With inputs from IANS)
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