India clean sweeping an opponent at home does not make jaws drop anymore. In fact, when the opposition is a depleted West Indian side, anything other than a sweep makes a few frowns. Naturally, India’s concern going in the inconsequential third T20I was not a visiting team playing for pride, it was complacency. That’s where a good captain comes to the fore and Rohit Sharma has proved he’s one of the very good ones.
Rohit diagnosed the problem before it even arrived. Wary about the complacency factor, his pre-match talk revolved more on being ruthless than the playing XI or the pitch.
"We spoke at the start of this game that we wanted to be ruthless. There were chances of us being complacent and turning up at the ground. We didn't want to be complacent and wanted to come out and win," Rohit said.
The result was an overwhelming 6-wicket win in the final match, where his side took care of an asking rate of more than 9 runs per over despite him being dismissed early for 4.
The scorecard may scream out a last-ball finish but India always had their noses in front by some distance. Yes, ideally the game should not have gone even till the last over, particularly when India had Pant and Dhawan – both batting well over 50 – and needed only 7 off 11. Astonishingly, they needed a misfield by the bowler off the final ball to cross over the line after both Dhawan and Pant got out playing strange shots.
"Games like these happen a lot. Especially in the IPL, these have happened a lot. I've been part of games like these with Mumbai Indians. Great effort to cross the finish line," he said.
Rohit was all praise for Dhawan, who scored a career-best 92 and announced his return to form.
"It was important from the team's perspective and for the players to get some runs ahead of the important Australia tour. Shikhar especially was batting well in the ODI series but he was not able to get big scores. I am glad that he could play a match-winning knock and get some form under his belt before the crucial tour," Rohit said.
On a pitch that offered considerable turn, Indian spinners – three off them – were off-colour and Rohit did not miss that either.
"As a team there is always scope for improvement. We need to improve on handling pressure situations while bowling," he said.
However, Rohit also impressed about the team’s fielding efforts. "I am happy how we fielded. I think we fielded really well in the tournament. In batting and bowling, there will be mistakes and there will be some good performances but we need to maintain the fielding standards," Rohit said.