Team India may adopt a ‘horses-for-courses’ tactic after failing to offset the spin-friendly conditions in Colombo, resulting in their first ODI series defeat to Sri Lanka in 27 years. Sri Lanka took advantage of the circumstances, with their spinners bamboozling Indian batters on sluggish and twisting wickets to win the three-match ODI series 2-0 after Men in Blue lost the final game by 110 runs.

I don’t see there is a lack of effort in how we want to try and play different shots. You saw some of these guys played reverse sweep, paddle, and all that is not the nature of their batsmanship. We have to be very clear with how we want to play and how to keep that momentum towards us when you play out pitches like this. We fell short now, thrice I would say, even in that first game that was tied, Rohit Sharma said.

We have to let the players know that this is what we want and if we have to be a little different in terms of choosing the personnel, we have to do that, unfortunately. We will try and see how we can be a good team in all kinds of conditions, the Indian skipper asserted. Rohit further added that Indian batters were not “brave enough consistently” and didn’t have individual plans in place for dealing with the spin challenge.

When I say brave, it doesn’t mean that the guys were not brave enough. You have to be brave enough consistently on slightly challenging pitches where you are trying to take on the bowlers, trying to play different shots. Again, it all comes down to individual plans, Rohit explained.