'Even experienced bowlers go for runs' - Rohit Sharma backs Bhuvneshwar Kumar amid poor outing in the Asia Cup 2022

Rohit Sharma- Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Image source- Twitter)

India aimed to clinch the Asia Cup title for a record eighth time this year. But it has been put to a pause with the team losing the first two matches in the Super 4 round. Neither could the experts decode what went wrong for India nor the fans. Nothing has gone right for India in big tournaments since their loss against Pakistan in the 20-20 World Cup 2021.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has become the target this time around and reasonably so. The bowler conceded 19 runs in the penultimate over against Pakistan in the Super 4 clash. He went to concede 14 runs in the 19th over against Sri Lanka inclusive of two extras. Leading the pace attack, fans expected a better performance from him.

Trolls, abuses, memes and opinions have surrounded the life of the pacer post his back-to-back poor performances. Amid all this, the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma attended the post-match press conference. As expected, the Mumbai batter backed the 32-year-old pacer in the presser.

Rohit Sharma requested fans and critics to not judge the potential of Bhuvneshwar Kumar based on the last two games. “Even experienced bowlers go for runs. Bhuvi has been playing for us for so many years and has won us so many matches in death overs,” Sharma said post-match.

We will try out more players in Australia and South Africa series: Rohit Sharma

The Indian skipper said in the post-match press conference that the team would try more players in the next series. He added that the team for the 20-20 World Cup 2022 would be somewhat similar to that of the Asia Cup.

"We will try out more players in Australia and South Africa series till the T20 World Cup squad is announced. We have the sixth bowling option but we want to try the combination of the fifth bowler. When we go to World Cup then we would like to go with six bowlers," he said.

"The way spinners bowled, they gave us hope and brought us into the match again. But we could not close the match the way we wanted to," Sharma concluded.