'Missed out...,' says India skipper Gill on Rohit's fifty in second ODI vs Australia

India lost the second consecutive ODI of the three-match series on Thursday (Oct 23) in Adelaide as Australia took an unassailable lead in the series with one more match to go. Despite loss, one good thing came out of the match - Rohit Sharma scoring a fifty. The former Indian skipper was scratchy in his innings but managed to get 73 in the end on a pitch which was difficult for batters to start with. Shubman Gill, who replaced Rohit as ODI skipper ahead of the series, was full of praise for the veteran batter despite the series loss.

Gill on Rohit's scratchy 50 in Adelaide

“Never easy coming back and playing after a long time. The initial phase was challenging, but very pleased with how he batted. He fought well — I would say he missed out on a really big knock,” Gill said about Rohit after the match. The Indian skipper was also asked about the loss, to which he acknowledged dropping a couple of catches as the reason and not the sub-par score.

Also Read - Rawal joint-fastest to THIS WODI milestone as India post record total vs NZ-W

“We had just enough runs on the board. Never easy when you drop a couple of chances to be able to defend that kind of a total,” said the Indian skipper. India scored 264/9 while batting first as Australia chased it down with two wickets in hand and 22 balls to spare.

Kohli scores rare consecutive duck

While Rohit dusted off his first ODI failure with a fifty in Adelaide, his long-time teammate Virat Kohli bagged a second consecutive duck. Kohli, who has more than 14k ODI runs and most tons (51) than anyone else in this format of the game, was trapped LBW off an incoming delivery. Including Adelaide, Kohli has 18 ducks in his ODI career but never consecutive ones. His last duck in ODIs came in 2023 against England in ODI World Cup.