Captain Rohit Sharma blamed the batsmen’s lack of application behind their abysmal showing in the second ODI in Visakhapatnam on Sunday, which Australia won by 10 wickets.
“It is disappointing. No doubt about that. We didn’t play to our potential and we didn’t apply ourselves with the bat.
“We always knew those were not enough runs on the board. It was not a 117 pitch at all. By no means. We just didn’t apply ourselves,” a dejected Rohit said at the postmatch presentation.
The scenario wasn’t really looking bad for India when Rohit and Virat Kohli hit a flurry of boundaries during their second-wicket stand.
But despite being well set, Rohit played a poor shot to perish at slip off Mitchell Starc while Kohli, who was looking solid, tried to play across the line and was lbw off pacer Nathan Ellis.
“We kept losing wickets and that didn’t allow us to get the runs we wanted. Once we lost Shubman in the first over, Virat and I got 30-35 runs quickly. But then, I lost my wicket and we lost a couple of wickets back-to-back which put us on the back foot.
“It’s always tough to come back from that situation,” Rohit rued.
Praising Starc for his fifer, Rohit said India kept falling to his strength. “He kept bowling to his strength and we kept falling to it. It’s something we need to understand and play accordingly.”
