Skipper Rohit Sharma on Thursday said there isn’t anything specific which the Indian team wants to try and achieve ahead of the Champions Trophy but would look to keep ticking all the boxes like they did against England in the first ODI here.
Barring a minor hiccup towards the end of a modest 249-run chase when they slipped from 221/3 to 235/6, India produced a near-perfect show to take a 1-0 lead with a four-wicket win.
“Nothing specific. Overall as a team, I just want us to keep making sure that we keep doing the right things as often as possible. There is nothing specific that we want to try and achieve,” Rohit told the broadcaster after the match.
“We want to try and tick every box that is there to be ticked in terms of bowling, batting and stuff like that. So (we) pretty much managed to do that today, although I felt I we shouldn’t have lost those wickets at the end.”
“It would have been good, but again, guys are trying to put pressure back on the bowlers and while doing that things like this can happen,” he said. Rohit said he was satisfied with India’s performance given the team was playing an ODI game after almost six months.
“I’m pretty happy because we all knew that we’re coming off from a long time playing this format so it was important for us to just regroup as quickly as possible and understand what is supposed to be done,” he said.
“This is a slightly longest format where you have time to come back into the game. When things start to go slightly away from you, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to keep going away.
“You have to try and pull things back and that is what exactly what we did. A lot of credit to all the bowlers there, everyone chipped in with that performance and it was important and necessary for us to keep that going,” he said.
Rohit praised Axar Patel for his 47-ball 52 after the all-rounder was sent in at No 5. “We want a lefty in the middle. We know there are a couple of (England) spinners who are going to bowl into the left-handers and we wanted a left-hander to be out there,” he said.
“Axar, over the years now we’ve seen how improved he is as a cricketer especially with his bat and we got to see that again today. We were slightly under pressure at that point we needed a partnership and Gill and Axar batted really well.”
Shubman Gill, who scored a match-winning 87, said it was important to not get bogged down early on in the chase when India were reduced to 19/2.
“(I was) just trying to be positive. There was a little bit in it for the fast bowlers with the new ball. So the thought process was not to get too much on the back foot (and) to have a good intent and play some good cricketing shots,” he said.
England captain Jos Buttler rued losing wickets in a heap again on this tour and said some more runs would have helped his side.
“We got off to a fantastic start in the powerplay but we lost wickets. Another 40-50 runs could have been handy with the way the wicket played towards the end,” Buttler said.
