After India’s humiliating whitewash in the three-ODI series, stand-in skipper KL Rahul said that the mistakes they made are “quite obvious”. Following a close defeat by just four runs in the final ODI at Newlands, Cape Town, Rahul rued “poor shot selection” and inability to put pressure for long period of times as the reason why the visitors faltered in the limited-overs series.
"Quite obvious where we've gone wrong. No shying away from it. At times our shot selection has been poor. Even with the ball we haven't been hitting the right areas consistently. Have played well in patches but haven't built pressure over a long period," Rahul said during the post-match presentation ceremony.
While Rahul indirectly criticised Pant for his reckless shot to get out for a golden duck, he praise Deepak Chahar for his game-changing 34-ball 54 that revived India’s run chase and almost saw them take it home.
"Deepak gave us a real chance of winning the game. Quite an exciting game, just disappointed we ended up on the losing side. We gave ourselves a real chance, something we can learn from and get better," he said.
While India have lost two of the three ODIs comprehensively, Rahul feels that the team does not lack in “passion and effort”.
"Can't fault the boys for the passion and effort. In terms of skill and understanding the situation - sometimes we've gone wrong. But it happens - we've got some new guys in the team. In the one-day series at times we've kept doing the same mistakes," the 29-year-old said.
"It's early in our journey to the World Cup. We can go back, have some hard conversations. Have had a great time in South Africa. Have been looked after really well. We've shown a lot of fight," he added.
On his debut ODI series as captain, Rahul created an unwanted record. The Karnataka batter became the first Indian captain to lose his first three ODIs. Also, this was India’s first whitewash in the limited-overs format in South Africa after 2007/08 series where India lost by 0-4.
