'Maybe that's the reason': Rohit Sharma explains how poor decision-making cost India against Pakistan & New Zealand
Rohit Sharma admitted that the decisions taken by the Men In Blue didn't go their way, labelling it as one of the reasons behind the team's downfall at the T20 World Cup.
After enduring two crushing defeats against big guns Pakistan and New Zealand, Team India managed to keep their hopes alive at the ongoing T20 World Cup as they secured a commanding 66-run win against Afghanistan on Wednesday evening.
The team after being invited to bat first posted a gigantic 210/2 on the board as openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul showed some spark with the bat for the first time in the tournament and went on to stitch a 140-run opening stand.
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In response, Afghanistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals and could only muster 144/7 in 20 overs.
Rohit, who earned the Player-of-the-Match award for his 74, admitted that the decisions taken by the Men In Blue didn't go their way, labelling it as one of the reasons behind the team's downfall at the World Cup.
"The approach was different. I wish it was in the first two games as well but it didn't happen. But that can happen when you are on the road for a long time. Decision-making sometimes can be a problem and that's exactly what happened in the first two games," Rohit said at the post-match press conference.
"The amount of cricket that is being played and amount of cricket we are playing, every time you step onto the field, you have to make the right decision," he added.
The Indian vice-captain also quipped about the amount of cricket the team played prior to the event, claiming it to be one of the possible reasons behind the mistakes in decision-making.
“You need to ensure that you are fresh in terms of mental aspect. May be that's the reason why we didn't take some good decisions. When you play a lot of cricket, these kind of things keep happening. You need to get away from the game and freshen up your mind.
"But when you play the World Cup, your full focus should be on the World Cup, you should know what you need to do and what you don't," he said.
Rohit also made his displeasure known very subtly when he said that two bad games can't make a team look incompetent.
"It didn't happen in two games but that doesn't mean that we have become bad players overnight. If you have two bad games, it doesn't mean that all players are bad, those who are running the team are bad, you reflect and you come back and that's what we did in this game," he said.
"In these situations, you have to stay fearless and not think about what is happening elsewhere. We are a very good team but just that we were not great on that particular day against Pakistan and also against New Zealand.
"The game that we played sums it up that this is what we get when we play fearlessly," he signed off.
(With PTI inputs)