New Delhi. Australia has made a huge score in the fourth test being played against India in Melbourne. The host batsmen thrashed the Indian bowlers in this Boxing Day Test. Even Jasprit Bumrah was not spared. On the second day of the match, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc scored 143 runs in just 27 overs. Former coach Ravi Shastri and former selector MSK Prasad looked very angry with this performance of India. Although he held many things responsible for the team’s performance, he talked about Rohit Sharma the most. He raised questions on Rohit Sharma’s decisions ranging from team selection to bowling change.
MSK Prasad, while commenting for Star Sports, listed many mistakes of captain Rohit Sharma. He told Rohit’s first mistake was to drop Shubman Gill from the playing eleven. Prasad said that it is not right to leave out a player who has been performing well for the last two years. MSK takes this point forward and says that all this confusion happened because of Nitish Kumar Reddy, who is neither a match-winning bowler nor a batsman who can be played in a specialist position.
MSK Prasad said that the team management wanted Nitish Reddy in the playing eleven, hence Shubman Gill was dropped and Washington Sundar was included. But this was also a defensive decision. The team’s focus was more on the depth of batting than the strength of bowling. Going with two spinners on this pitch was not the right decision. It would have been better if a pacer was chosen instead of Sundar. India’s successful coach Ravi Shastri raised questions on Rohit’s captaincy and said that he did not understand what was the need to play two spinners on this pitch.
MSK Prasad also mentioned India’s defeat to New Zealand. He said that under the captaincy of Rohit, India lost the series at home. After this, when he did not play in the first match against Australia and Jasprit Bumrah captained it, India won. When Rohit returned to the team, he was under pressure and his bat was not scoring runs here either. Due to this they are under pressure.
MSK Prasad also believes that Rohit Sharma was late in changing the bowling on the first day of the fourth Test. He said that when Sam Constas was bowling brilliantly, making Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj bowl 11 overs continuously was not a right decision at all. He should have changed the bowling first.
Tags: India vs Australia, msk prasad, Ravi Shastri, Rohit Sharma, Team india
FIRST PUBLISHED: December 27, 2024, 07:52 IST