Rohit Sharma disappointed after India lose to Sri Lanka in 2nd ODI, says there will be a talk about how their batting fared in the middle overs

After losing to Sri Lanka by 32 runs in the second ODI at R. Premadasa Stadium, a disappointed India captain Rohit Sharma said there will be a talk in the team

India captain Rohit Sharma was left disappointed after his team suffered a 32-run defeat to Sri Lanka in the second ODI at R. Premadasa Stadium on Sunday. The loss ended India's run of 11 consecutive bilateral series (2+ matches) wins in ODIs against Sri Lanka.

Chasing 241, India were bowled out for 208 in a match where all the first six wickets fell to leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay, who returned figures of 6-33. It was also the first time that an ODI innings saw its first six wickets fall to a spinner.

Rohit, who once again played a blazing knock of 64 off 29 balls, said that while the team understands the nature of the pitch and how the game unfolds, they were not good enough on the day and failed to capitalize on the blazing start provided by the openers.

"We do understand the nature of this surface and the nature of how the game is going to go as well. It gets really, really tough in the middle overs. So you have to try and capitalize in the powerplay and get as many runs as possible," Rohit said after the match ended.

"That's what both openers were trying to do. But we were just not good enough today. We have played really good cricket in the past but I don't want to look too much into how we played. But certainly, there is going to be a talk about how we bat in the middle overs," he added.

After promoting Washington Sundar to number four didn’t work in the tied first ODI on Friday, India got Shivam Dube in the same position on Sunday, but it resulted in him falling for a duck. It meant K.L Rahul and Shreyas Iyer were again pushed down in the batting order, which didn’t yield desirable results.

"You have to adapt to what's in front of you. With left-right (combination), we felt it would be slightly easier to rotate the strike, but that didn't happen. Credit to Jeffrey, who bowled really well and picked six wickets. Sri Lanka played really good cricket."

"When you lose a game, everything hurts. If you want to win games, we understand we have to play consistent cricket and we failed to do that today. Little disappointing, but these things happen,” Rohit added.

Rohit was once again dismissed while attempting a high-risk reverse-sweep off Vandersay, and only managed to get a top edge, which was caught by backward point running across and diving to grab the catch with both hands.

Despite the dismissal being a turning point in India's loss, Rohit said he will stick by his attacking batting approach.

"The reason I got 65 (64) runs is because of the way I batted. When I bat like that, there is bound to be risk taking and I'm not afraid to do that. Whenever you get out, whether you score 100, 50 or zero you feel disappointed if you don't get across the line. But that won't change my intent. We didn't play good cricket, that's why we lost the game,” he concluded.