Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, once again, came under the microscope on Sunday after the Indian team looked seemingly clueless in containing Travis Head, who smashed a second consecutive century and third against India in the last four Tests, as Australia scored 445 runs in the first innings of the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. Former cricketers Ravi Shastri and Michael Vaughan were left baffled at some of the on-field decisions Rohit took on Day 2 of the match against Head.
As Head closed in on a century off 115 balls on Sunday, he struck one cut shot with so much power that Virat Kohli, standing square of the batter just 20 metres away, barely had time to react, despite the ball passing him within the catching range. While one could blame Head for creating this chaos in the mind of Rohit, under whom India have now lost all their last four Tests, including a whitewash at home, but the decision over that field placement seemed quite perplexing for cricket experts.
Shastri, speaking on air, reckoned the placements of fielders adapted against Head only outlined India’s unwillingness to take the risk of getting hit for a boundary in exchange for a potential wicket.
“When you see the field set, that can cost you big time,” Shastri said. “I mentioned some time ago that the idea might be to contain and see if a wicket comes, but you are not going to contain Australia setting this field. With these two players playing the way they are, and Head in particular, looking to get a boundary every over. There is absolutely no doubt about that. He will get it. Then the problems start if five fielders are out at the boundary and he is still getting the boundary, he is getting seven or eight runs an over easily. The runs are there to be taken.”
‘Not Rohit’s best day as skipper’
On the other hand, former England captain Vaughan criticised Rohit for not sticking to one particular plan for a long time.
“They don’t settle on a tactic for long enough,” Vaughan told Fox Cricket. “Are they trying to snick him off? Why don’t they try to bounce him out? Why don’t they go full and wide, pack the off side?”
Fellow Fox Cricket expert Kerry O’Keeffe reckoned Rohit looked too negative with his field placements.
“I don’t think Rohit Sharma has had his best day as skipper,” he said. “He will say the pitch was so good that we were just trying to control it with outfielders, but you had to pressure Australia and get them out.”
