India suffered their first loss in an ODI series at home since 2015 after Australia beat them by 35 runs to win the fifth and final ODI on Wednesday and secure a 3-2 victory in the series. But skipper Virat Kohli was not giving any excuses and said that the defeat has not had any bearing on the Indian team’s vision of which players will be in the playing XI at World Cup come June.
“The last three games, the idea was to give the guys on the bench a bit of game time and just put them in those positions and see how they react. Changes will never be an excuse,” Kohli said.
“None of the guys in the change room are panicking or feeling down after this defeat because we know things that we wanted to do in the last three encounters purely because the World Cup is ahead. As a side, we feel pretty balanced,” the skipper added.
Complementing the opposition, Kohli said, “The fact that Australia came and won here, it had to be a hard-fought series. They played better cricket than us and they deserved to win the last three games.”
“In the first two, we showed composure, to be honest, it doesn’t feel like something off has happened because we have been playing such good cricket and have lost 3 out 5 where the other team has been more passionate and energetic than us in pressure moments. That’s probably the only breakdown I can give of the last three matches,” he added.
