T20 World Cup: Skipper Rohit wants Team India to stay 'calm and composed' in the final against SA
Skipper Rohit Sharma has lauded Team India's calmness under pressure as they beat England to enter the T20 World semifinal and has urged his side to maintain the same mindset in the summit clash against South Africa.
India clinched their place in the T20 World Cup final with a 68-run victory over England on Thursday. Next, they head to Kensington Oval in Barbados to take on the Proteas, the only other unbeaten team in the tournament.
Moreover, India is aiming to break their recent drought at ICC tournaments and add a second T20 World Cup trophy to the one they claimed in South Africa in 2007.
"We've been very calm as a team. I know that we do understand the occasion. It's a big occasion. But for us, it's important that we keep calm because I thought staying calm and composed helps you make good decisions. And that is what will be required as well.
"We've got to keep making good decisions throughout the 40 overs and that will help us making the game through. And I thought in this game as well, we were very steady, we were very calm. We didn't panic too much. And that has been the key for us," Rohit said after the match.
"We need to understand that occasion. Yes, it's quite important, but you know, you got to play cricket as well. You got to play good cricket as weld and that will allow you when you're very composed in your mind, you know, and that is what we want to do in the finals as well," he added.
Rohit termed the semifinal win over England as "very satisfying", since it was a rematch of the T20 World Cup 2022 semifinal in Adelaide, where India had suffered a ten-wicket defeat.
"Very satisfying actually to win this game. We worked really hard as a unit to come through this stage and to win this game like that was a great effort from everybody," he said.
The skipper top-scored for India with a well-compiled half-century at the top of the order, with Suryakymar Yadav then chipping in with a handy cameo of 47 that helped the India post a total of 171/7.
In defense, Indian "gun spinners" spinners Kuldeep Yadav (3/19), Axar Patel (3/23) and Ravindra Jadeja (0/16) combined to take six wickets between them to bundle out defedning champions England to 103 to secure a third straight ICC final across formats having reached the Word Test Championships final and ODI World Cup final last year.
Rohit also praised the Indian spinners for halting England's progress in the chase, specifically mentioning Axar and Kuldeep. "Axar & Kuldeep, "Yeah, absolutely. I think the gun spinners, when the conditions like that are there in front of them, obviously it's very difficult to play some shots and obviously the pressure is on them as well to come and execute those balls. But I thought they were very calm.
"They exactly knew what to bowl. And we had a little chat first after the first innings. We said, try and hit the stumps as much as possible, keep the stumps in play and that's exactly what they did," said Rohit.
Rohit expressed confidence that Virat Kohli would come out of his string of low scores in this T20 World Cup. In the semifinal against England, Kohli was dismissed for 9. The right-hander has found it tough in this tournament, managing just 75 runs from seven innings, with the highest score of 37.
"He's a quality player. Any player can go through that. But again, we do understand his class and we do understand his importance in all these big games. Form is never a problem because when you have played cricket for 15 years, form is never a problem. I thought he's looking good. He's the intent is there. It's probably saving for the finals," concluded Rohit.
Assessing what kind of score was likely to be competitive, the India skipper said "At one stage we were feeling 140-150 and then as the game went on, we got some runs in the middle. Me and Surya got that partnership. Then we said, OK, another 20-25 runs more."
"But again, you know I can set the target in my mind, but I don't want to let anyone know about it to the batters because they are all instinctive players. And I want them to go out there and play freely without thinking too much about what's the power score.
"We bat well. We understand the condition well. We will get to a good score. And that's exactly what happened. We got to 170, which I thought was a very good score on that pitch. And then the bowlers were fantastic," he concluded.