Need to work on rotating the strike, says Rahul

Sydney, Nov 29  Wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul said that he will analyse how to reduce the number of dot balls he faces after India’s second ODI against Australia.

Although he made 76 of 66 balls, Rahul failed to rotate the strike regularly on Sunday in a match that India lost by 51 runs at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Rahul played 29 dot balls out of the 66 he faced as he relied more on sixes and fours. He scored 46 of his runs off boundaries, that included five sixes and four fours.

“I will personally sit back and see how I can reduce those dot balls. You want to get better as a player, you want to give your team the best chance to win. If you can rotate a few, and the fewer dot balls you play, the better position your team will be in,” said Rahul in the post-match press conference.

Rahul shared crucial partnerships with India captain Virat Kohli (72 for the fourth wicket) and Hardik Pandya (62 for the fifth wicket). “There is always something as a player that we can improve on,” he said.

Rahul, 28, said that the mood in the Indian camp is still positive. The loss on Sunday also confirmed a series defeat for India and Rahul said that the Australians did well because they are used to playing in home conditions.

“The mood in the camp is still very positive. Sometimes as team you learn to accept that the opposition played better cricket. Home conditions for them, they played better cricket. We’ve played 50-over cricket after a long, long time,” he said.

India last played an ODI series in February against New Zealand, losing all the three games in the series.

“We are doing lots of things that are good. We need to learn to bowl better on these beautiful wickets. Not a lot of wrong we have done. Need to get better with skills and execution and figure out what best we can do on such wickets,” he said.