India vs West Indies 3rd ODI: Rohit Sharma Credits Middle-Order Batters For Victory, Says That’s The Biggest Takeaway

Ahmedabad: Rohit Sharma extends his series winning streak in ODIs as captain on Friday as the Men in Blue got the better off the Windies side by a margin of 96 runs to clinch the series 3-0 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Sharma credited the middle-order batters, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant as their respective fifties helped India pose a target of 265 in 50 overs.

‘That was the biggest takeaway for us – the middle order batting. Today was again a great game for the middle order. We were 40/3. For me that’s the biggest takeaway’, Sharma said in the post-match interaction.

Shreyas Iyer scored 80 off 111 deliveries and Pant scored 56 off 54 when the chips were down.

The Mumbai Indians man is not worried about the captaincy record as he extends his ODI winning streak to 3 series as skipper of the team (2-1 vs Sri Lanka, Asia Cup, 2018  3-0 vs West Indies, 2022 ). He said as individuals, the team is aware what to focus on as outside noise doesn’t bother the dressing room.

”Definitely not looking at those numbers (captaincy record). Have ticked a lot of boxes in this series. Whatever we wanted to get out of this series, we pretty much got. Noise will be around as long as we’re playing. People look up to us, everybody watches us. As players, as individuals, we know what we need to focus on. Outside noise doesn’t bother the dressing room”, Sharma told.

He was in all praise for Prasidh Krishna, who had a brilliant spell with the ball in the ODI series.

”I said it in the last game as well – never seen something like that in India (Prasidh’s spell). Good to have someone who can hit the deck and get that bounce. Although I didn’t feel like this was Indian conditions, was good to see the fast bowlers actually. Was also impressed with Siraj. And then Shardul and Deepak did the job for us. Both Kuldeep and Chahal are crucial players for us. Especially Kuldeep. Chahal was very much in the plans and Kuldeep went off the radar. It was important to get him back slowly. Important to give them that confidence”, Rohit added.