Rohit Sharma will be still pinching himself and asking if Dharamshala ODI was for real. India seemed like a team of school boys which played Sri Lanka to offer them some practice.
Sri Lanka seemed to weak an opposition at the start of the innings, so much so that even Kohli was rested. But what happened in the match was completely contradictory to what India would have thought.
India could only manage 112 and this too seemed impossible at one stage. India was 29/7 and reaching 112 could have only been a miracle. MS Dhoni stood out against all odds and scored 65 but India did miss Rahane by all means and Rohit Sharma agreed to it.
The batsmen made their way to the pavilion one after the other and it seemed like Indian batting was some house of cards. Lakmal and Mathews were on top of the Indian batsmen and made inroads way to deep. Towards the end of the game it was obvious that Rohit Sharma would have asked himself as to why didn’t he play Rahane.
Ajinkya Rahane has had a miserable test series against the Lankans but his experience is still hefty. Rohit Sharma in the post match presentation did admit that India missed Rahane in the playing 11 today. Rohit said that since the team management sees him as an opener so they didn’t want to disrupt his batting order.
The statement from Rohit Sharma means that Rahane would definitely play at Mohali. Now at whose expense Rahane makes his way to the playing XI will be interesting to see.
