Melbourne: After India’s shocking loss to Australia by 184 runs in the Melbourne Test, captain Rohit Sharma’s statement shocked everyone. He said that team would have had the possibility to win or at least draw the match if the fresher players had batted longer.
In his post-match speech, Rohit shared his thoughts and emotions, admitting, “Losing a match is always a hard thing to take. For a batsman, performance comes first. We had a chance to either win or level the game. We fought well, but those who scored should have batted more. They are still learning.” He added, “It’s painful to lose. We actually wanted to fight our best, but it didn’t happen. We need to analyse where we went wrong all match long. We had our chances; at one time, Australia was in trouble at 90 for 6.”
Rohit’s remarks seemed to actually be aimed at Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant, who both played important roles in that game but were out in crucial moments. Yashasvi was, some would say, a bit unluckily out after hitting 84 runs, while Pant just saw the score of 30 hits before giving away his wicket right after the tea break.
Rohit’s position has been criticised, especially as he himself has not started well the whole series. In three matches he has scored only 31 runs with a shocking average of 6.20. His footwork has been missing, leading to many questions on how he holds the youth players when he himself isn’t able to perform.
Rohit came back to his opening role in this Test match, but he could not impact the game. Questions on decision-making and effects on the team dynamics were also raised. KL Rahul has also seen a dip in his performance as he dropped down the batting order and failed to make any scores in both innings.
As the team struggles with this defeat and its series status, Rohit’s comments have opened a lot for discussion about the accountability and performance in the squad.
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