Rohit Sharma explained why India did not use Mohammad Shami till the 20th over of their T20 World Cup warm-up match against Australia in Brisbane on Monday (October 17).
The seamer did not come out to field and instead stayed on the sidelines until the Indian captain instructed him to bowl the crucial last over of the innings, with the hosts requiring 11 off the last 6 balls.
The bowler had a match-winning performance, conceding only four runs while taking three wickets to restrict Australia to 180 all out in response to India's 186/7 batting first.
.
But why didn't Shami bowl earlier in the innings, when he required overs after returning to the T20I side after nearly a year away as a replacement for the injured Jasprit Bumrah? Rohit Sharma tried to justify himself.
In an interview with Star Sports, Rohit Sharma revealed that keeping Shami in the hut till the death-overs phase was always part of India's plan. Rohit said that the team did not want to expose their experienced fast earlier in the game, partly to avoid rushing him in after recovering from a positive Covid-19 test and partly to re-test his mettle in the end-overs stage.
"This was always the plan," Rohit said. "Honestly, he is coming back after a long time. So we just wanted to give him an over. This was always the plan from the beginning."
"He comes and bowls at the death. We know how lethal he can be with the new ball. We just wanted to give him a little bit of a challenge, coming and bowling that death over and we saw what it was," he added.
Shami's superb final over, though, couldn't hide India's bowling issues, as they nearly conceded a target of 187 against the Aussies on a flat Gabba pitch. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/20) and Ravichandran Ashwin (0/28) bowled quite well, but the rest of the lineup was costly.
Rohit noted there is clearly space for improvement with the ball, as his bowlers failed to consistently hit the appropriate spots on a high-bounce pitch, which they would aim to smooth out in the next official warm-up game against New Zealand on Wednesday (October 19) at the same venue.
READ| Watch: Virat Kohli takes a stunning catch on the boundary during warm-up match against Australia
