Rohit Sharma brushed aside the talks of complacency after India's ODI series loss to Sri Lanka by saying that the hosts played better cricket than them.
Cricket commentator and presenter Roshan Abeysinghe asked Rohit whether Team India were a bit complacent coming into the series after the T20 World Cup triumph and the Indian captain dismissed the thought.
"No, it's a joke. When you're playing for India, there's no complacency. We have to give credit where credit is due, Sri Lanka played better than us. We looked at the conditions and wanted to take pace off the ball, and that's why we went with our combination. All in all, we didn't play good cricket through the series, and that is why we stand here," Rohit said during the post-match presentation.
A pressing issue for Team India that emerged out of the three-match ODI series was the way they handled spin. India lost 27 wickets to spin - the most by any team in a bilateral ODI series comprising at least three games. The tourists got bundled out for 138 in 26.1 overs while chasing 249 and lost nine of their wickets to spin.
"I don't think it's a concern, but it's something we need to look at seriously, our individual gameplans, and it's something we were definitely put under pressure with in this series," said Rohit after being asked to comment on India's lacklustre display against spinners.
He also urged the team to take the defeat on the chin and move on and pointed out the positives that India could take back home.
"Throughout there were a few positives too. How the spinners bowled, some of the batters in the middle as well. We lost the series, and I feel there are a lot of areas we need to look at rather than the positives. We need to go back and look at what we need to do when we come up against conditions like this. Series lost doesn't mean the end of the world. These guys have been playing very well over the past few years, very consistent, you will lose the odd series," he concluded.
