Khaleel himself wanted to bowl with new ball: Rohit

India captain Rohit Sharma today said that Khaleel Ahmed's ability to swing the white kookaburra upfront gives the team an option to use their premier bowler Jasprit Bumrah differently in the shortest format.

Rohit was impressed with the youngster, who himself sought the new ball from his skipper.

"Khaleel wanted the new ball and he initially looks to swing it and he has taken up the challenge well. Bumrah has been the premier bowler for us and the way we use him in T20s is different to ODIs. And when Khaleel bowls that kind of a spell upfront that helps us," Rohit said at the post-match presentation.

Khaleel on his part was happy that he was up for the challenge.

"I had more responsibility today as I was bowling with the new ball. I had read the pitch well when we were batting," said Khaleel, who is still finetuning certain areas in his bowling.

"I am working on my bowling arm as well as on my non-bowling arm with Bharat Arun (bowling coach) sir during practice sessions."
"It was a new pitch, so we wanted to understand how the wicket is behaving. Hence, we took so much time to understand what the pitch is doing. And we carried on from there."