India suffered a shocking seven-wicket defeat to Bangladesh in the first of the three T20Is played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Sunday. While the hosts were the hot favorites having never lost a T20I against Bangladesh, the visitors punched above their weight to stun the Men in Blue in their backyard.
Ahead of the second T20I in Rajkot, India skipper Rohit hinted at a change in the playing attack.
“Our batting looks good. So I don’t think there’s any change we need to make in our batting. But we’ll analyze the pitch, and based on that, we’ll see what we can do as a team,” Rohit told the reports at the pre-match conference.
Khaleel Ahmed was taken to the cleaners in the penultimate over by Mushfiqur Rahim in the Delhi T20I, and the chances are high that Shardul Thakur will replace the left-arm pacer.
“The (pace-bowling) combination that we played in the last game, it was based on the pitch that was on offer in Delhi. We will see the pitch again today, and we will think what we need to do in our bowling line-up,” Rohit said.
The 32-year-old is confident that the track in Rajkot will offer assistance to both batsmen and the bowlers and will be a much better track than what everyone saw in Delhi.
“The pitch looks good. Rajkot has always been a good track to bat on, and it does offer some assistance to the bowlers also. It will be a good pitch. I’m pretty sure it will be better than what you saw in Delhi,” he opined.
Rohit also revealed the reason why India batsmen found it difficult to get going on the Kotla track. “We have seen the pitch in Delhi was challenging; the ball was gripping and turning. On such kinds of wickets, you never know what a good score is. As far as Rajkot pitch is concerned, there is hope that it will play better than Delhi’s, and thus our approach will be different,” he added.
