Rishabh Pant was having a torrid time in the Delhi Twenty20 International against Bangladesh on Sunday. The left-hander had hit 27 off 26 balls but he fell at a wrong time yet again as Inda were restricted to 148/6. Behind the stumps though, his real nightmare started. In the 10th over, he failed to review an LBW decision against Mushfiqur Rahim off Yuzvendra Chahal and replays showed the ball was hitting the stumps. In the same over, Pant appealed for a catch against Soumya Sarkar and chose a review but he got it wrong as replays suggested that there was no edge. The lost review proved costly as Sarkar and Rahim shared a 60-run stand and Rahim blasted 60* to help Bangladesh win by seven wickets for their first win against India in the format.
Rohit Sharma, the Indian cricket team skipper though defended the youngster stating that he needed more time to understand the DRS. "Rishabh is young and he will need time to understand. It's too soon to judge whether he can make those decisions. Plus, the bowlers as well. It's a combination when the captain is not in the right position to make that decision. When you are not in the right position (as a fielder), you have to trust your bowler and the wicketkeeper. Based on that, you have to make that decision, whichever format you play," Rohit said in the post-match press conference.
India did not help themselves with some batting and fielding lapses. They lost Rohit in the first over after he became the leading run-getter in Twenty20 Internationals while they failed to carry on after getting a good start. Rahim and Sarkar benefited from some missed run-outs and dropped catches and Rohit stressed that missed chances proved costly.
"148 was a good score. We would have defended it if we were smart on the field. A couple of decisions we did not get it right on the field and that went against us. That's where we lacked in decision making," Rohit said.
Needing to defend 22 runs in the last two overs, Rohit handed the ball to young left-arm paceman Khaleel Ahmed, who conceded four straight boundaries. Asked if how difficult it was to operate without proven performers such as Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, the captain backed his young bowlers.
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"These are the guys, who did not play for a while in this format. These are bowlers we have been identified that they are the ones who can do well in this format. They have done reasonably well. They still need to understand when defending smaller targets, they need to bowl according to the plan. They will learn by playing these games. They have the talent and ability to bounce back but only time will tell if they can do that or not," Rohit said.
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