Poor application and their failure to build substantial partnerships was the reason for India's downfall while chasing a target of 270 in the third ODI against Australia in Chennai on Wednesday, said captain Rohit Sharma.
India lost a bilateral ODI series at home after four years and it was Australia under Aaron Finch that had beaten Virat Kohli's side back in 2019.
"I don't think it was too many runs. The wicket was a little challenging towards the second half. I don't think we batted well. Partnerships are crucial, and we failed to do that today," Rohit said after the third ODI in Chennai on Wednesday.
In fact, what he found disappointing was that the Indian players have come up the ranks playing on these slow turners.
"The mode of dismissals... you are born and brought up on these wickets. Sometimes you need to apply yourself, and give yourself a chance. It was important for one batter to carry on and take the game deep. But all of us were trying our best; it just didn't happen."
However Rohit feels that the nine home ODIs since January has ensured plenty of positives for the India ahead of this year's World Cup.
"The nine ODIs we have played since January, we can take a lot of positives from that," he said.
"We need to understand where we need to improve. It's a collective failure, we can take a lot of learnings from this series. Credit to the Australians. Both the spinners applied the pressure and so did their seamers," Rohit added.
