Rohit backs Bhuvi, Harshal to come good

Hyderabad: Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has backed pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel to hit form ahead of the T20 World Cup.

Following a disappointing Asia Cup campaign, the Indian team had something to cheer as it won the three-match series against Australia 2-1 after clinching a six-wicket win in the third game here on Sunday.

However, both Bhuvneshwar and Harshal, who made a comeback from injury, leaked runs in the series, ending with an economy rate of 12 plus.

“It's important that we give him (Bhuvi) that space because when you have a guy like him in in the team and the quality that he brings, we know that he's had more good days than the bad days in the last so many years.

“We've been working on some plans, and hopefully, we can give him more options to bowl in the death. And then he'll be as good as he was before," said Rohit in the post match media interaction.

Despite the woeful run, Rohit said Bhuvneshwar is not short on confidence.

“I don't see that he is short in confidence. It's time for us to show that faith in him and keep backing his skillset

“From our side, we are trying to work out what are the things we can do because when you're bowling in the death you can't be predictable. You need to have options to bowl on both sides of the ground and set the field accordingly.

“And someone with that experience it'll be easy for him to grasp all that knowledge.”

Harshal, who is coming off a long injury layoff, also struggled, giving away 99 runs in eight overs in the three games but Rohit said the death overs specialist is not being judged on this series.

“Harshal is an important player for us without a doubt. Coming back after an injury is never easy. He missed cricket for close to two months. It's not easy (to come back), so we've not judged him on how he is performing in these three games, because we know his quality.

"He has bowled some really tough overs for us in the past and also for his franchise. It's important to keep showing that faith and I'm sure that you know he's also trying to rectify those mistakes and he's not too far from his best.”

Assessing the team's performance in the series, Rohit said: “We want to tighten in all departments. I know our batting has been brilliant in the last eight or nine games that we played since Asia Cup.

"But we still want us to be more clinical, more aggressive, you know and play with that aggression. We want to keep doing that.”

While the batting unit performed well, the bowlers struggled and the fielding from the side was also substandard.

"Bowling is the main focus. Fielding is one aspect which will never stop. We want to keep improving as a fielding unit all the time,” Rohit added.