Team India have won the first T20I against England. The team outclassed England who recently beat India in the rescheduled fifth and final Test against India to draw the series. However, this was a good start for the team as part of their T20 World Cup prep. Although they won the game, the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma calls Indian players ‘sloppy’ as they dropped a few catches.
While talking about the dropped catches in the post-match presentation, Rohit said, “We were sloppy in the field. Those catches should’ve been taken. We want to set a high standard in that department. Not proud of it.”
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“Great performance from ball one. All batters showed intent. Although the pitch was good, we played good shots and never got ahead of the game. You got to make use of those six overs in the powerplay. There is a certain approach we want to take in the powerplay. You got to back yourself in this game, sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn’t. The whole batting unit needs to understand the direction the team is taking and the guys were spot on today. I was impressed with his (Hardik) bowling. He wants to do that a lot more in the future, bowled quick and used his variations too. Of course his batting is there for us to see. That’s the reason we wanted to bat (ball swinging under lights). Sometimes it does swing in the evenings and we wanted to utilize that. Both the new ball bowlers used the swing and stopped their batters,” Rohit Sharma again shared.
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya was selected as the Player of the Match for his half-century and 4 crucial wickets for his team. However, he has returned to the team with a bang. And, he has been in sublime form since the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League where he captained his team to their first-ever IPL Trophy in their debut season itself.
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Hardik Pandya said: “The last time I played a T20 in England, I think I took 4 wickets and scored some 30. So I kind of knew I was the first Indian to score fifty and take 4 wickets. I am enjoying my cricket right now. For me a lot of time goes into the preparation to get my body ready. The kind of break I took before this run of play I want to capitalize on the opportunities. I felt I needed that break. It is about giving your 100% and when you don’t do that, there is no point playing. So I needed that break and now I am happy to be in this place right now.”
