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Team India’s chances of winning the current Asia Cup were severely damaged after the Rohit Sharma-led team lost to Sri Lanka by six wickets in the Super 4 stage at the Dubai International Stadium.
After this loss, India is now reliant on both Afghanistan and Sri Lanka to get to the championship game.
In order for India to go to the final based on a higher net run rate, both Sri Lanka and Afghanistan must defeat Pakistan, and India must defeat Afghanistan by a substantial margin.
Don’t Think We Are Lagging Behind Anywhere: Rohit Sharma
After the defeat against Sri Lanka, Rohit Sharma had a press conference where he discussed if Team India should start to worry and whether the group has recently been falling behind in multi-nation competitions.
“I don’t think we are lagging behind anywhere (in multi-nation tournaments). The quality is there within the team, I think somewhere down the line, when there is a multi-nation tournament, pressure is more.
In bilaterals, you play 3-5 matches against a single opponent, there you have the chance to read the mindset of the opposition. But when you play tournaments like World Cup, Asia Cup, the challenge is in playing against different teams,” said Rohit.
“We have talked about this in our dressing room, we have talked about how we can stay ahead of the game. Unfortunately, we did not go to the semifinals of the T20 World Cup last year, we have lost two matches here in Asia Cup. But it is a challenge for us, every player on our team knows the challenge.
But if you look at our history in ICC tournaments, you can see that we have played semi-finals, final and we have also won the final in the past. I do not think, we need to think too much about it. Our work is to help players understand how to make better decisions under pressure situations,” he added.
There Is No Reason To Worry: Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma responded when asked whether there was any cause for concern for the team: “There is no worry. If you lose two matches, it does not mean that you start worrying. In our dressing room, such talks don’t take place.
We have played many matches after the World Cup and we have won so many, just because we have lost these two matches in the Asia Cup, I do not think there is a reason to worry. Experienced batters get out and experienced bowlers are taken for runs, this all is normal and it keeps happening.”
“I do not think we should start worrying. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been playing for so many years, he has won so many matches for us at the death. 1-2 bad games do not mean that we start judging him,” he added.
Our Team Is Almost 95% Settled: Rohit Sharma
Regarding the match against Sri Lanka, India scored 173/8 in 20 overs thanks to skipper Rohit’s innings of 72 runs. India, on the other hand, failed to successfully defend the target, and Sri Lanka crossed the finish line with six wickets remaining and one ball remaining.
“Our team is almost 95 per cent settled. There are just a few changes that will happen. That’s about it, talking about experiments, we wanted to try out some different things.
If you look at the combination that we have been playing before the start of the Asia Cup, it was with four seamers, two spinners and the second spinner was an all-rounder. But I always wanted to try and find answers on what happens if you play with three seamers,” said Rohit Sharma.
“When you are playing games like these, against quality opposition, you have to challenge yourself. We just wanted to try and see what happens if we play three seamers, in hindsight, the fourth seamer that was here was not available for selection for the last two games because he was sick.
There are a lot of questions that we need to answer, we found some answers in the last few series. After this, we have two more series to play, I do not know when the team will be announced for World Cup, till then it is not announced, we can certainly try a few more players,” he added
Also Read: PAK vs AFG: Match Preview – Asia Cup 2022, Super Four Match 4
