Kolkata: Right now, the only constant in India’s batting template in white-ball formats seems to be Rohit Sharma’s explosive starts. He comes, assesses the field and straightaway gets down to flaying bowling attacks. Some factors favour him too. The field is in during the Powerplay, the ball is harder and pace on the ball makes stroke-making easier. After that, Sri Lanka proved three matches in a row that consolidating those starts were easier said than done.

Why? A straightforward reason is an apparent lack of skill against spin bowling on a pitch assisting turn. A more complicated one is the mindset that prevented India’s vaunted middle-order from learning and adapting, considering all three pitches were very similar. Sharma believes India weren’t aggressive enough to set the tone in the middle overs.

“It is important to take on the bowlers on such pitches where the ball is turning and it is tough to score,” he said in the post-match press conference after India lost an ODI bilateral series to Sri Lanka for the first time since 1997. “It is important to be a bit brave. I don’t think we were brave enough throughout the series to put them under a little bit of pressure. That’s why we were a bit left lagging behind.”

Like the sweep shot, which Sharma believes Sri Lanka were better at executing. “They were consistent with sweeps, taking their chances,” he said. “There weren’t a lot of runs scored down the ground. They didn’t use their feet as much as we expected. It was about using sweeps and piercing that deep square leg and midwicket field. That is something we failed to do as a batting unit. We didn’t play enough sweeps, reverse sweeps, or paddle sweeps, and used our feet too much. That was the difference.”

Even if that is the case, India could have surely taken a step back, handing the spinners the upper hand and graft singles at the same time? Playing risk-free cricket was the least India could have ensured, especially after Sharma’s opening salvos kept the asking rate well below the line of worry. This is where the mindset issue assumes a different proportion. Case in point are the dismissals of Rishabh Pant and Riyan Parag in the final ODI.

To supplant a more cautious KL Rahul with Pant in the last ODI had its downside, but to charge down the pitch to a spinner who could take the ball away from the left-hander raises the question of accountability. Sharma had just been dismissed and India needed a partnership. The shot would have still been justified on a flatter track but Pant was nowhere close to even reading the ball off the hand or pitch. Equally poor was Parag — he himself got the ball to turn a fair bit — not offering a shot to a spinner. Those two dismissals underlined the extremes of India’s batting approach.

“We all know where we are erring, what we need to improve on. Individually, we have spoken to a lot of players on this topic, that they will get a lot more opportunities to play spin in these conditions,” said Sharma. “On these (slow) wickets, where some balls are turning and some are not, you have to go in with a game plan. At the same time, you also need to play your shots. If you think you will defend all six balls, it may not be possible on such a pitch.”

That said, the dismissals showed there was no one way to play on such a pitch. Sharma and Shivam Dube were dismissed trying to play across the line, Kohli was dismissed on the front foot while Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel were beaten on the backfoot. While it illustrated how well Sri Lanka spinners bowled as a pack, India were expected to react better at least in the third ODI, having experienced everything the hosts could throw at them in the first two matches.

“Playing spin against slow bowlers on slow pitches shouldn’t be the excuse for us,” said Sharma. “We all play on these kinds of pitches. It is about having game plans, being clear. It comes down to individual plans. Everyone needs to understand that this is my plan and this is how I am going to play.

“If the pitch suits your plan, take them on. If it doesn’t, then what are the options? Come down the track, push for singles, all the basics of batsmanship on slow surfaces. We have grown up on slow pitches. Pitches have turned and been slow. It is about having your own plan and believing that is good enough to come out on top on pitches like that.

“All in all, as far as the team is concerned, and how I look at it, we need to admit where we have made mistakes; we didn’t dominate against spin. On such wickets, you need to do that a bit and the Sri Lankan spinners consistently kept us under pressure in all three games.”

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