India captain Rohit Sharma was all praise for his bowling unit, which has consistently kept opposition teams on tight leash ensuring the side’s smooth passage into the Asia Cup final.
India have assured themselves a spot in the summit clash after winning two Super Four Games against Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively.
The Indian bowlers have restricted Pakistan to 162 and 237 in two games while bowling out Bangladesh for 173.
“The entire bowling unit stuck to their task and hats off to them. Repeated performances are challenging in these conditions and I don’t want to take any credit away from bowlers,” said Rohit, who was involved in a double hundred partnership with Shikhar Dhawan.
Exceptional bowling
Rohit mentioned Jasprit Bumrah for his exceptional bowling in the ongoing tournament.
“I think he’s (Bumrah) matured as a bowler now, played great amount of cricket and he understands his bowling. I think that’s very very important for any individual; Bumrah understands what fields he needs to set and knows how to keep it tight. Bhuvi also did the same,” the skipper said.
Rohit was also happy that the strategy of playing four spinners, including part-timer Kedar Jadhav, has clicked so far with Ravindra Jadeja’s comeback adding a new dimension.
“When Hardik got injured, the challenge was to field four spinners and we thought about a few combinations (3 seamers, 4 spinners) and in these conditions it is important to take the pace and not give much pace. For Jadeja, to come out and perform like that is amazing.”
Batting becomes easy with Dhawan
They now have 13 century opening partnerships and Rohit feels batting with Dhawan becomes easy as both of them are clear about their roles.
“With Shikhar, I don’t need to talk much. It’s important to let him be himself. We have batted enough to know each other to start off like that and we clearly know our roles. We always knew that the new batsman will find it difficult to keep going straightaway and Shikhar and I knew it.”
On his own batting, the skipper spoke about how he has worked on his pull shots which have worked well for him during this tournament.
“Nothing is easy (talking about the pulls for six). I have really worked hard on those kind of shots. When it comes off it really looks nice and I’ve gotten out a few times playing such shots.
“I back myself to play those shots. It’s important to put pressure on bowlers. They have one of the great bowling attacks. Taking nothing away from their bowling and they have troubled us in the past.”
Sensible in shot selection
Dhawan said he has become sensible in his shot selection of late, in white ball cricket, and it’s from Rohit that he has learnt to convert those 50s into 100s’
“...he’s very good at converting those 50s into 100s and that’s something I’ve learnt from him. It’s good that we both value our wicket. When you play 20 overs on this track, it gets easy. The plan was not to lose wickets in the first 10 overs as you might not get runs easily early on,” Dhawan said.
“I wanted to be sensible with my shots and I’ve thrown it away in the past and I have learnt the lessons the hard way. That’s the good for me and it’s nice to have that balance,” Dhawan said.
Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed rued the couple of dropped catches of Rohit, which cost his team dearly in the end.
“We made it tough for ourselves by dropping those catches. We were 20-25 runs short and if we would have held on to our catches we could have possibly made things interesting.
“The wicket was a bit difficult to play on in the afternoon as the cracks had widened up. It wasn’t easy for a new batsman walking in. Had we got early wickets, this chase would have been certainly difficult. We have been losing a lot of wickets in the early overs and hence it becomes difficult to recover from such situations.”
The Pakistan captain was all praise for the Indian centurions.
“The way they batted, all credit to them. Rohit and Dhawan were exceptional. They have shown better skills as compared to us. We need to work a lot on our skill level if at all we want to get into the final.
“It’s a do-or-die match against Bangladesh, hopefully we’ll come out on top.”
Skilful bowling pool behind success: Chahal
Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has attributed India’s consistent show with the ball across formats to a skilful pool of bowlers and confidence shown by the team management.
“Our bowling pool has swelled to 10-15 and earlier it wasn’t so. Now one who is replacing you is also as skilful,” Chahal told reporters after India notched up a comfortable nine-wicket win over Pakistan in the Asia Cup.
“Even in England, the way our bowlers have dominated, it shows the regular flow of spinners and medium pacers in the team. Also the confidence showed by the management, that is important for a youngster. There is no negativity, you can concentrate on your bowling.”
Invincible team
India have been invincible in the six-nation tournament as they defeated Pakistan twice, besides notching up wins against Hong Kong and Bangladesh.
“We were positive from the start, because the first match against Hong Kong was tough. Next we were playing Pakistan after a long time, the atmosphere was good.
“We haven’t lost a match in this tournament, especially winning two matches against Pakistan will give us a boost ahead of the final,” Chahal said.
It was Chahal’s first match against Pakistan.
Asked about his experience, he said: “Generally cricketers have a bucket list, where you hope to play Pakistan one day but when we played them, it didn’t feel that we were playing Pakistan, it seemed its our own team only.
“When you go to the ground, it doesn’t matter if you are playing Pakistan or England. It is all about being mentally strong and how much pressure you can deal with.”
Dominated with bat and ball
India have dominated Pakistan both with the bat and the ball but Chahal said it was just a case of a team having a bad day in office for their arch-rivals.
“Our batsmen put their bowlers under pressure from the start. They are playing the new ball well, they are taking their time and partnership are getting longer,” he said.
“In this wicket, you have to vary line and length. But they got mentally down as the match was slipping away, so the situation was different.
“Sometimes it happens, teams don’t have a good day but they (Pakistan) are also a good team. So it is not a one-sided thing, the tournament is still not over.”
Chahal, who has taken five wickets, including 2 for 46 against Pakistan on Sunday, in the four matches at Asia Cup, said he tries to bowl according to the wicket.
“I have bowled a lot in the Powerplay overs in T20 matches in IPL and for India. So it is not a new thing, I vary my pace and length according to the wicket,” he said.
Asked about his interactions with Ravindra Jadeja, who made a comeback to ODI with a four-wicket haul against Bangladesh, Chahal said: “I am playing with Jaddu bhai (Jadeja) for the first time. He is a senior and experienced player. He reads the wicket well.
“I have played with Kuldeep more. I discussed with Jaddu bhai if I should slower the pace of my deliveries in this wicket, so all three of us discussed and planned accordingly,” he added.
Talking about Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, Chahal said: “I haven’t met Rashid a lot. But I watch him whenever I get a chance. He is one of my favourites.
“He is one bowler who hasn’t gone for much runs in the matches that he has played. So bowlers have to think when they face him. I follow his attitude, whenever I get a chance, we speak about leg-spin.”
