Centurion, South Africa
India skipper Rohit Sharma has defended the bowlers after the humiliating defeat in the Boxing Day Test against South Africa in Centurion. The game lasted just three days, with India losing by an innings and 32 runs. Sharma, speaking at the post-match presentation, said that the bowlers did try their best but it just didn't work.
"Bumrah bowled well," Rohit said. "We all know his quality. All he wanted was a bit of support from the other side, which he didn't get. To be honest, that happens (once in a while).
"All the other three bowlers, they were trying really hard, bending their back, but it just didn't work out. Didn't happen the way we would have wanted to. But again, games like this teach you a lot of things, what you need to do as a group, as a bowling group. Hopefully, they can understand what went wrong, and then try and come back a little stronger from this game," he added.
India batted decently in the first innings, scoring 245 runs in tricky conditions, thanks largely to KL Rahul's eighth Test century. The bowlers, however, couldn't capitalise despite the conditions being friendly. While Bumrah and Siraj largely looked unplayable, they couldn't draw many edges and the pressure couldn't be built from the other side - especially by Prasidh Krishna.
Rohit, nonetheless, defended Krishna who made his debut for India in the whites but agreed that the inexperience was there.
"Look, a little bit inexperience, of course, but he has got the tools to come out here and play the game," the skipper said.
"Prasidh has been with the Indian team. Not around the Test team, but he has played a lot of white-ball cricket for us in the last two or three years, and he has shown that he has got a lot of potential. Obviously, it didn't work out well for him playing his first game, but we all were nervous when we played our first game," he added.
The second and final Test between South Africa and India starts on January 3 in Cape Town.