India suffered a crushing 209-run defeat in the WTC final against Australia.
The Rohit Sharma-led side was outplayed by Australia in all facets of the game. After winning the toss, Indian bowlers failed to make the most of the overcast conditions as Australia piled up 469 in their first innings on the back of centuries from Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121).
In response, India’s first innings folded for 296, conceding a substantial lead of 173 runs. Australia tightened their grip in the match by scoring 270/8 (declare) in the second essay.
Chasing 444 in the fourth innings, the Indian batting line-up once again crumbled under pressure, losing seven wickets for 70 runs in the morning session on Day 5 to lose the match by a huge margin of 209 runs.
After the dismal show, the Indian team is drawing flak from all quarters and West Indies pace legend Andy Roberts has also joined the bandwagon of critics.
According to Roberts, India underestimate the rest of the world and the arrogance resulted in their downfall.
“There is this arrogance which has crept into Indian cricket and through this, India have underestimated the rest of the world. India must decide what their focus is—Test cricket or limited overs cricket. T20 cricket will run its course. There is no contest between bat and ball there,” Roberts told mid-day in an exclusive chat.
The 72-year-old was particularly critical of India’s batting as only Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur managed to hit half-centuries across the two innings.
“I expected India to show their batting strength. I saw no bright spot in the final although Ajinkya Rahane fought hard; got hit on his hand. Shubman Gill looks good when he plays those shots, but he stands on leg stump and is often dismissed bowled or caught behind. He has good hands, but he must get behind the ball. Virat Kohli, though, got a brute of a delivery from Mitchell Starc in the first innings. India have some very good players mind you, but they have not performed creditably away from home,” he added.
Roberts slammed the Indian team management for not playing No. 1 ranked Test spinner R Ashwin in the WTC final. India went with the combination of four pacers and one spinner in Ravindra Jadeja.
“Dropping Ashwin was ridiculous. How can you not pick your best spinner? Unbelievable, the think-tank’s decision to pick four quick bowlers (Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur) appeared fine to him except the fact that not one of those four is very tall. That would have made a difference in terms of bounce,” Roberts remarked.