(MENAFN- Gulf Times) India have to play their best cricket if they are to come back in the three-match one-day series against Bangladesh, said batsman Rohit Sharma, ahead of the second match to be played today.
India trail Bangladesh 0-1 in the series after they lost the first one day international by 79 runs on Thursday. "They are playing some good cricket off late," said Rohit in Mirpur.
"We can't take any team for granted. With the current form with them, we have to be at our best. From our point of view it's very important that we stick to our game plan."
Rohit top-scored for India with 63 in the first match as the visitors floundered to 228 all out, replying to Bangladesh's 307 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. "We knew what went wrong in the first match. We will think about it and when we come back and play the second ODI it will be a different Indian side. We have got certain plans coming their way, hopefully we will try and execute those plans and things will work in our favour then."
The Indian opener-the only player to score two double centuries in ODI
cricket-added that despite being behind in the series they are not feeling any pressure. "There is no pressure. We just need to come and play the way we have been playing," he said.
"We just have to get our basics right and be a little more aggressive. This is the same Indian team that played in the World Cup, so I don't see any reason why we cannot change the results in our favour."
Getting wickets was something Bangladesh did well, first through Taskin
Ahmed's double strike that got rid of Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, and then through a debut five-wicket haul by Mustafizur Rahman, whose left-arm off-cutters undid several batsmen. Rohit gave credit to how Mustafizur had utilised the conditions, but said the Indian batsmen's shot selection hadn't been too hot either.
"He bowled really well. He was making full use of the conditions, and they worked in his favour. And not to forget that we played some stupid shots in the middle as well," said Rohit. "But yes, you've got to give credit to them. Obviously when you have 300-plus on the board, the pressure is always on the opposition to keep up with the run-rate. Once we lost a couple of wickets in the middle, they built the pressure really well and bowled according to the field."
Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha said he was not satisfied with the performance of the team in the last match despite they won the game. "Although we won, that's the scary part," said Hathurusingha. "We still can improve, not only batting we can improve in our fielding and bowling execution as well."
Bangladesh, who beat Pakistan 3-0 in their previous series, started well, putting 102 runs in 13.4 overs before a middle-order collapse stemmed the run flow. "I think we played much better against Pakistan, some of the matches. So I think we are looking to improve in the next two games," said Hathurusinghe. The third and final ODI will be held at the same ground in Mirpur on June 24.
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