Rohit Sharma lauds Indian bowlers after series win over West Indies

Skipper Rohit Sharma on Friday hailed India’s bowling unit after they defended 266 runs to clinch the series 3-0 against the West Indies. He reckoned that the biggest positive out of the ODI series was the performance of the bowling unit.

“The biggest positive was obviously our bowling unit. The fast bowlers and the spinners did a great job in this particular series,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference.

“Along with Prasidh (Krishna), Mohammad (Siraj), was outstanding with the new ball and bowled with a lot of pace.

“Shardul (Thakur) played a couple of games and bowled really well in the middle overs and got one opportunity with the new ball and Deepak (Chahar) was very impressed by his skillset and how he swung the ball,” he said.

Rohit also singled out Prasidh Krishna’s impact, who took nine wickets in the series.

“Look, I cannot tell you about Test cricket, but Prasidh has certainly impressed everyone with his bowling in the series.

“We were looking for someone who could bowl those overs in the middle and get us those breakthroughs, and we saw that clearly with the way he bowled, particularly in the last two games, with a lot of pace. We could clearly see that he was getting something out of the pitch as well.

“From the team’s perspective, it is a good sign that he was able to come out and perform like that. He is certainly a bright prospect for the future.”

Rohit also stated that the middle order batting was satisfying after a disappointing outing in South Africa.

“What we were worried about was how we would challenge in the middle overs, and I believed our middle order batting was good in this series.

“We batted according to the conditions and had spoken about it for a long time that the middle order doesn’t get the opportunity because the top-three bat, but in this series our middle order batted really well,” Rohit added.

The newly appointed ODI skipper weighed in on Virat Kohli’s form and has backed his predecessor to come good.

“Virat Kohli ko confidence ki kya zarurat hai? Kya baat kar rahe ho yaar,” Rohit chuckles.

“I think not scoring a hundred is a different thing. He played a series in South Africa and scored two half-centuries. I don’t see anything wrong and the team management is not at all concerned about it.” skipper added.

Rohit Sharma started his ODI captaincy tenure with a 3-0 series victory and now the caravan shifts towards the T20I series in Kolkata, starting from February 16.