IND vs NZ: Rohit credits Indian spinners after 3-0 series win

Following India’s emphatic 3-0 series win over New Zealand in Kolkata on Sunday, the team’s newly-appointed T20 captain Rohit Sharma credited spinners for doing their job to perfection.

In the first two games, Ashwin picked with three wickets while Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal starred in India’s 73-run win in Kolkata on the night.

“The spinners did the job for us in the entire series. The way Ashwin bowled, Axar. And how Chahal came back. Good to see Venkatesh Iyer bowling those overs with the skills he has,” said Sharma, who also collected the Man of the Series award for scoring 159 runs over three games.

Sharma praised KL Rahul’s form as well while showing concern over the performance of the middle-order, who had just one opportunity to play in the series and they came a cropper.

“We had something planned as a batting group. Wouldn’t say it worked out well. Room for improvement in the middle order. 

“The batting front – KL missed out today but his form is critical. Middle-order didn’t get much opportunity except today,” he said.

The 34-year-old opener further stressed on having a batting line-up that runs deep. 

“Important for us going forward. I would prefer that going forward teams around the world bat deep till No.8, No.9. Harshal, when he plays for Haryana, he opens the batting for them. And then Deepak, we’ve seen what he did in Sri Lanka. Even Chahal was looking forward to batting as well,” he quipped at the end.

Speaking of his performance throughout the series, the T20 skipper said he enjoyed his batting as the ball nicely came to the bat.

“It’s important to start well. That’s always been my mindset. Once you’ve seen the pitch you know what you’ve got to do. It was nicely coming onto the bat with the dew coming early,” he said.