India captain Rohit Sharma backed Suryakumar Yadav after he suffered a hat-trick of golden ducks in the ODI series loss to Australia.
A 21-run Australia victory on Wednesday saw the tourists leapfrog India at the top of the 50-over rankings, with the series defeat India's first at home since 2019.
Suryakumar's display highlighted the hosts woes, facing just three balls over the course of the series without getting his bat to any of them.
He was trapped lbw by Mitchell Starc both in India's opening win and Australia's dominant subsequent response in the second match.
There was therefore immense pressure on Suryakumar ahead of the decider in Chennai, and he was bowled by Ashton Agar.
#TeamIndia came close to the target but it's Australia who won the third and final ODI by 21 runs.#INDvAUS | @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/1gmougMb0T
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 22, 2023
But the batter retained the support of skipper Rohit.
"He played only three balls in the series. I don't know how much you can look into it. He got three good balls," Rohit said after the match.
"Today [Wednesday] I didn't think it was that great a ball. He just chose the wrong shot. He should have, maybe, come forward. He knows best.
"He plays spin so well, which is why we wanted to hold him back and give him that role of last 15 to 20 overs.
"But it's really unfortunate that he could only play three balls in the series. That can happen to anyone. The potential, the quality is always there. He's just going through that phase right now."
