IND vs SL 2017: "Each and every guy has put in a lot of effort."- Rohit Sharma

Washington Sundar made his T20 International debut, under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, in the third match of the T20 series and replaced Yuzvendra Chahal while Mohammed Siraj replaced Jasprit Bumrah in the third match. India won the match by five wickets and whitewashed the Lankan in the T20 series. India won the toss and chose to bowl first on a pitch which looked good for batting. India bowled decently and restricted the tourists to just 135/7. Jaydev Unadkat and Hardik Pandya picked up two wickets each. Mohammed Siraj who was playing his second T20I was the most expensive bowler and gave away 45 runs in four overs and picked up a wicket.

For Sri Lanka, Asela Gunaratne was the top scorer for the Lankan side as he scored 36 runs, other than him none of the Sri Lankan batsmen took the responsibility and played well. Sadeera Samarawickrama combined with Gunaratne for a 38 runs partnership.

Manish Pandey played an anchors role in the Indian innings and carried his good form in the third match and scored 29-ball 32 runs. Rohit Sharma had a rare failure and scored a 20 ball 27. Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni were involved in a 31 runs partnership and won India the match.

Here is what Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation.

“We always knew that whatever target is set up, we back our batsmen to get it. That is something we spoke about at the start of the series too, to play with six batters and an all-rounder. Happy with the composition we had throughout the series. Guys who got opportunities made it count throughout. Thoroughly a team effort. Each and every guy has put in a lot of effort. They’ve done their homework thoroughly, which was pleasing. Lot of the guys you see were playing their first game, second game, but it never felt that way. They’ve played lot of cricket in home conditions – IPL and things like that. They were confident and it was our job as management to back them. It’s a great occasion to play for your country. They came and did what they were expected to do. Looking very much forward to South Africa. Would like to reiterate the home season we’ve had. Never easy, no matter what conditions you play in. You have to go and get the win. Since we started playing against Australia at home, we started doing things right. There were few hiccups in the middle. Games like Dharamsala which taught us a lot. As a batting unit too, we were challenged at different times, but the way we came back was very good.”