Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra criticised Rohit Sharma’s captaincy in the second Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia in Adelaide. The tourists lost by 10 wickets. Aakash felt Rohit took a defensive approach against Australian batter Travis Head and did not make good use of Jasprit Bumrah in the match.
Head, once again, emerged as India’s tormentor as he smashed a match-winning 140 off 141 in front of his home crowd. The knock helped Australia post a 337-run total and take a match-defining 157-run lead. In response, India managed only 175 runs in the second innings as Australian openers chased down the target of 19 in 20 balls.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Aakash reckoned Rohit looked clueless as a captain as he did not make good use of Bumrah nor urged his fast bowlers to apply short-ball strategy against Head.
“You are absolutely right, my friend. Did we bowl bouncers to Head? You have to bowl bouncers on Head’s head. Until we do that. he doesn’t get out and keeps troubling us. He has done that earlier and is doing it now also. He did that in the World Cup final and the WTC final as well,” he said.
“Jasprit Bumrah had bowled a four-over spell and had already picked up a wicket in that. So why did he bowl only four overs, and didn’t bowl after that at all? He didn’t bowl in the entire session. So you are 100 percent right when you say that you missed a trick in captaincy. Rohit’s captaincy – let’s call a spade a spade. We saw defensive captaincy. He allowed the match to drift,” he added.
‘Rohit’s captaincy has been lacklustre’
Aakash then highlighted Rohit’s unwanted captaincy streak of four straight losses, the other three being in the unprecedented whitewash at home against New Zealand in early November. Although Rohit matched MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli’s humiliating tally with the loss in Adelaide, what left him concerned was that unlike his predecessors, three of those came at home.
“I have brought another list as well – the most consecutive losses by an Indian captain. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi lost six consecutive matches in 1967. After that, Sachin Tendulkar in 1999, and if you come to the 21st century, MS Dhoni twice lost four consecutive matches, Virat Kohli lost four consecutive matches in 2020-21, and now Rohit Sharma has already lost four consecutive matches,” he said.
“He wasn’t the captain in the Perth match. So that win doesn’t count for him. If we leave the last century, it’s Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit, and the biggest concerning thing, which might not be with anyone else, is three consecutive losses at home. The captaincy has been a little lacklustre,” he added.
