IND vs BAN: Captain Rohit Sharma said – lost match due to pitch

India captain Rohit Sharma has admitted that poor batting was the main reason for the one-wicket loss to Bangladesh in the first ODI. He said that 30 to 40 more runs could have been scored. It has made a lot of difference in the match. Despite having a line-up that had batsmen available till No.9. India had a disappointing performance with the bat on a slow pitch as they were bundled out for 186 runs in 41.2 overs. Shakib Al Hasan used his line, and length to good effect and managed to take 5 for 36, while Ebadat Hossain took 4 for 47. KL Rahul was the lone batsman for India, scoring 73 off 70 balls and sharing a 60-run partnership with Washington Sundar. It was not enough runs.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma said that if there were 30-40 more runs, it would have been better for us. It made a big difference to the match. With KL Rahul and Sundar, we could have reached a better total. Unfortunately, we lost wickets in the middle and it hasn't been easy. Rohit said that the Indian batsmen will have to play together with the bat against the spinners as their six wickets in the first ODI went to the spinners.

He said that the pitch was a bit challenging, and the balls were coming to a halt. You have to understand how to play. There is no excuse, we are used to such circumstances. We need to see how they bat against their spinners in these conditions. However, India took a wicket on the very first ball in their defence of 186 and reduced Bangladesh from 128/4 to 136/9 in the space of 26 balls. But Mehdi scored an unbeaten 38 and shared an unbeaten last-wicket partnership of 51 off 41 balls with Mustafizur Rahman scoring 10 runs to seal Bangladesh's victory.

India lost their grip in the last six overs and came under pressure. Mehdi was batting on 15 when KL Rahul dropped the catch. Bowling with poor fielding apart from overthrows that cost them. It was a very close game. We did very well to get back in the game. We didn't bat well. 186 was not good enough, but we bowled very well and put them under pressure till the end.

Rohit further said that if you look back and see how we bowled, definitely in the last few overs we could not take wickets. But, we bowled very well for 40 overs and we kept taking wickets. With India now 1-0 down in the series with the second ODI at the same venue on Wednesday, Rohit wants the visitors to do better. “I really don't know how much they can improve in a couple of practice sessions. These guys have grown up playing in such conditions.