DECEMBER 8, 2022
Former Indian cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, Venkatesh Prasad and Virender Sehwag have raised hard questions after India lost to Bangladesh in the 2nd ODI at Sher-E-Bangla stadium in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Gavaskar slammed Rohit Sharma for not coming earlier to bat in the 2nd ODI.
Gavaskar said on Sony Sports Network “Everybody knows the quality and class of the man. And the thing now, when India came so close, is why did he not come in to bat earlier? If he was going to bat at No. 9, then he should have batted at No. 7,”
India in a nailbiting contest lost by five runs. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma injured his finger during the second over whilst trying to take a catch in the second slip. Rohit later in the second innings came to bat at number nine and scored a blistering 51*(28).
“What that could have done is, I think, Axar Patel would have played differently. Axar thought that maybe Rohit Sharma won’t bat, and therefore he played that shot. At that stage, there was no need to play that shot. Axar was batting so well, he was picking the ball well, and had he continues, you never know, the outcome could have been different. At No. 9, he almost got India to a memorable win so had he come to bat at 7, India would have had a much better chance,” Gavaskar added.
Elsewhere former cricketers Virender Sehwag and Venkatesh Prasad were unhappy with India’s recent ODI performances. Both players took to Twitter to express their discontent.
Venkatesh Prasad mocked India’s approach by tweeting “India is innovating in so many fields across the world. But whn it comes to playing limited overs cricket, our approach is a decade old. England after the 2015 WC first round exit took tough calls and turned around to become such an exciting team, India need to take tough calls..”
India has now lost two bilateral ODI series in a row against New Zealand and Bangladesh.
“And change approach drastically. We haven’t won a T20 WC since the IPL started & last 5 years have been poor in ODIs apart from winning inconsequential bilateral. Haven’t learned from our mistakes for too long and far from being an exciting team in limited overs cricket. CHANGE”, Prasad has added.
Virender Sehwag on the other hand tweeted “Cryptos se bhi tez gir rahi hai apni performance yaar. Need to shake up – wake up.”
Courtesy/Source: Indian Express/PTI
