DUBAI: India stare at elimination in the Asia Cup after their six-wicket loss to Sri Lanka here on Tuesday but captain Rohit Sharma said there are no long-term worries as they were experimenting with three seamers in view of the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia.
Rohit said the back-to-back losses in the Asia Cup — the first against arch-rivals Pakistan on Sunday — will teach the team how to find answers before the ICC event in October-November.
“I was happy with three seamers. Unfortunately Avesh hasn’t turned up well in the fitness tests. He didn’t respond well because he was quite sick. Ideally the combination we would play is four seamers, but three seamers was something we wanted to try before the World Cup,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation.

“We need to find answers as a team, like where we are with five bowlers. We know now where we stand with this combination.
“No long-term worries, we have lost only two games back to back. Since the last World Cup, we haven’t lost too many games. These games will teach us. We wanted to put ourselves under pressure in the Asia Cup. We are still looking for answers.”
He praised the Indian bowlers for taking the game deep despite Sri Lanka’s flying start to the run-chase and questions being raised over Bhuvneshwar Kumar leaking runs in the death overs.
“Experienced batsmen get out and bowlers leak runs as well, these things are normal and happen,” said Rohit. “Bhuvi has been playing for so long, and has worked for us for so many years in the ‘death overs’ and won us games. So we should not judge him on two or three games.”

“(Yuzvendra) Chahal and Bhuvi are the senior pros and have been doing it for a while. I need to get answers from the younger ones.
“With the ball, it was a good effort to take it to the last over considering the start they had. The spinners bowled aggressively and got wickets in the middle overs, but Sri Lanka held their nerve.
“We thought with the bigger boundary, we could use the spinners well. But the plan didn’t work out. Their right-handers batted for very long. I thought of bringing in (Deepak) Hooda and using the longer boundaries.”

Rohit rued that his side was 10-15 runs short while batting.
“We just ended up on the wrong side, as simple as that. We could have capitalized on the first half of our innings. We fell 10-15 runs short. The second half wasn’t good for us.
“The guys who were out in the middle can learn about what shots can be played. These things can happen. Losses like these will make us understand what works as a team.”