Rohit Sharma after WTC final loss: Travis Head, Steve Smith centuries caught us off guard

India captain Rohit Sharma admitted that Australia batters Travis Head and Steve Smith’s first-innings hundreds attacked his team’s plans in the ICC World Test Championship final at the Kennington Oval in London on Sunday.

Following a 209-run defeat on a largely batting-friendly pitch, Rohit conceded that his bowlers failed to nail their execution after opting to bowl first. India conceded a mammoth 469 to Australia, led by Head (163) and Smith (126), the first two centurions in a WTC final.

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“I thought we started well with winning the toss, putting them to bat in those conditions. We bowled well in the first session and then we let ourselves down with how we bowled. Got to give credit to the Australian batters. Head came in and played really well along with Steven Smith. That just took us off guard a little bit. We knew it was always hard to comeback, but we put up a good show,” Rohit said after the defeat.

Rohit, however, lauded the fightback led by comeback man Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur who braved some hostile spells to reduce Australia’s first-innings lead to 173.

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“We spoke of bowling tighter lines. But it didn’t work out. Things like that can happen. I thought it was a great fightback from Rahane and Shardul after being 5 down for 150. They stood up and put up a good partnership there and kept us in the game. We bowled pretty well in the second innings. Again we didn’t apply ourselves with the bat. It was a good pitch to bat on. All five days the pitch behaved pretty well and we didn’t capitalise.”

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The 36-year-old Rohit, who took over the reins from Virat Kohli in early 2022, commended India’s efforts over two WTC cycles where it has twice finished runner-up.

“We’ve worked really hard for four years to make two finals. It’s a disappointment for us. We would like to go one better. But you cannot take anything away from what we’ve done in the two years. It’s a great effort. A lot of players took part in those series. We’ll keep our heads high and fight for the next championship as well,” said Rohit.