Rohit Sharma slams MS Dhoni's critics, says veteran will continue to be the pillar of Team India

Stand-in captain Rohit Sharma on Sunday (December 10) highlighted the importance of having MS Dhoni in the side after the wicketkeeper batsman hit a valiant 65 during India's seven-wicket loss to Sri Lanka in the first ODI of the ongoing three-match series in Dharamsala.

Rohit, who was handed the responsibility of leading the side in the absence of Virat Kohli, added he "never understood" why Dhoni was under scrutiny in the past.

Notably, the former captain proved his critics wrong once again by coming up with yet another rescue act at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium on Sunday.

India were reeling at 29 for 7 after Suranga Lakmal and co. decimated the top-order on pacer-friendly conditions on Sunday. Dhoni though made sure India did not succumb to an embarrassing total by soaking in the pressure, as always.

The 36-year-old added 41 runs with tail-ender Kuldeep Yadav for the eighth wicket and hit 65, including 10 boundaries and two sixes, to help India post 112 on the board. Despite not known for his technique, Dhoni found a way to effectively deal with Sri Lankan pacers, who were posing a lot of questions to the hosts.

"First of all, I never understood talks, before the game, of whether he was in our plans or not. Once he gets runs, suddenly the whole conversation changes," Rohit said at the post-match press conference in Dharamsala.

The skipper added: "He has been the pillar of this team and he will be continue to be.

"He showed us again how to bat in that situation. If one of our top-order batsmen had batted with him, we could have ended up with some decent amount of runs on the board. Nevertheless, we learn from it [defeat] and move forward."

Rohit talks about Bumrah's no-ball

Rohit also said the defeat will serve as an eye opener for the team, which will now fight to stay in the series when it takes on Sri Lanka in the second ODI on Wednesday, December 13.

The 30-year-old also added Jasprit Bumrah's no-ball, which helped Sri Lanka's top-scorer Upul Tharanga get an extra life early on in the innings, would not have made a big difference to the end result of the match as they did not post enough runs on the board.

"It's an eye opener. We should learn. This is a young batting group. These guys, including myself, will learn from that and play out these situations better next time," Rohit said.

"We lost the game with the bat and not with the ball. It will be completely unfair to single out a particular bowler. We, as a batting group, failed to tackle the situation.

"No-balls, drop catches will happen. They [bowlers] go out there, trying their best. I wouldn't say it cost us dearly because there was not enough runs on the board. If we were defending 180-190, maybe then we could have thought about it. If you are defending 110-20, you can hardly do anything about it except picking up a few wickets with the new ball and come back into the game."