Biggest positive was performance of bowling unit, reckons Rohit

Ahmedabad: India captain Rohit Sharma on Friday said that the biggest positive out of the ODI series against the West Indies was the performance of the bowling unit.

India blanked the West Indies 3-0 as they recorded an easy 96-run win in the third game on Friday.

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

”Along with Prasidh (Krishna), (Mohammed) Siraj was outstanding the way he bowled, with a lot of pace again, with the new ball and in the middle. ”Shardul (Thakur) played a couple of games, he bowled well in the middle and got one opportunity with the new ball and Deepak (Chahar), was very impressed with his skills as well, the way he swung the ball,” he said.

The skipper also had words of praise for Karnataka speedster Prasidh Krishna, who took nine wickets in the series.

”Look, honestly I cannot tell you about Test cricket. But, certainly he has impressed everyone with his bowling in this particular series. ”We were looking for someone like him to come out and bowl those overs in the middle and get us those breakthroughs, and we saw that clearly, the way he bowled in the last two games, with a lot of pace. We could 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 do that. He is definitely a prospect for the future.” Rohit said that the middle-order batting was good in the series after an ordinary show in South Africa. ”What we were worried about was the fact that, how we challenge in the middle overs, but our middle order batting in this series was very good. ”We batted according to the conditions and we had spoken about it for a long time that middle order does not get too many opportunities because the top three bat, but in this series, middle order batted well,” said Rohit.

Skipper also backed his predecessor and star batter Virat Kohli and laughed off concerns over his form.

”Virat Kohli ko confidence ki zaroorat hai? Kya baat kar rahe ho yaar,” quipped Rohit. ”It is a different matter that he did not get a hundred, but in the series against South Africa, he scored two half centuries in three games. I don’t think there is anything wrong. The team management is not at all worried about that,” he added.