India batsman Rohit Sharma said the recently-concluded five-match T20I series against England was really for the team to understand where they stand but this series in no way hints at the squad they will pick for this year’s T20 World Cup.
After the blistering half-centuries by skipper Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Indian bowlers restricted England to 188/8 to register a 36-run win in the fifth T20I here at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday. With this win, India clinched the five-match series by 3-2 and now both the teams will face off in the three-match ODI series.
“There will a few T20Is that we will be playing before the World Cup and of course, there is IPL. So, what I want to say is not to judge on (the basis of) what happened in these five games. These five games were good for us to judge as individuals and as a team as to where we stand. But this particular series does not send any signal that this is our perfect XI. There is still a long way to go,” Rohit said in the post-match press conference.
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“So we need to see what the form is of the current player and what is the ideal XI on certain conditions that we play and a certain team that we play. Sometimes you might feel that you need to have six bowlers in the playing XI which means you might have to sacrifice a batsman. So, all those things will come into play as and when we get closer to the World Cup,” he added.
During the match, skipper Virat Kohli and boys displayed a clinical performance in the series decider and England had no answers to what was thrown at them by the hosts.
Kohli’s decision to promote himself as an opener worked wonders in the fifth and final T20I against England as India posted a total of 224/2. Kohli played a knock of 80 runs while Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav played knocks of 64 and 32 respectively.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar also played a very crucial role in the victory as the bowler conceded just 15 runs from his four overs and picked two wickets.
Praising Bhuvneshwar, Rohit said: “Bhuvi has been here for a long enough (time) and has done really, really well for us in the shorter formats. He is still our one of the leading bowlers. Obviously, in this particular line-up, he is our leading bowler. He has accepted the responsibility pretty well. He bowled the crucial overs, at the start and then towards the end which we know is not easy at all, considering the amount of dew on the field. That is what someone like Bhuvi has done over the years for us. So, you can count on him and rely on him in situations like this.”