Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar has criticized Rohit Sharma’s captaincy stint for the Indian team and compared it with MS Dhoni’s tenure as India’s leader.
As India prepares for the 2023 World Cup tournament at home, millions of fans are expecting the Men in Blue to end their drought of ICC trophies as the last silverware they won came in 2013 when they won the Champions Trophy in England, under MS Dhoni.
Since then, India has lost a bunch of ICC tournaments under the captaincy of first Virat Kohli and most recently under Rohit Sharma. India was knocked out in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2022 and lost the final of ICC WTC 2023 under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma.
In a chat on Backstage With Boria, Akhtar admitted that there is going to be huge pressure on the Indian team in the World Cup as fans expect nothing less than the trophy from them.
"First of all, it is the pressure that you all put on the team. It is almost impossible to play with such pressure. Like I told you, it is as if you can't lose. If you, God forbid, lose, all hell will break loose," he said.
Akhtar then used MS Dhoni’s example highlighting how the former India skipper absorbed pressure and helped the Indian team perform at optimal level.
"The second and more important point is you had someone who could soak in all the pressure, and protect his teammates. He would not let his teammates feel the pressure, and that was the best thing about MS Dhoni. You won the 2007 World T20 under him, the 2011 World Cup, and then the 2013 Champions Trophy. The moment Dhoni gave up the captaincy, things went south for India,” Shoaib added.
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He further opined on Rohit Sharma’s captaincy stint and said that he has seen the Mumbaikar panic on occasions and has not handled the pressure well in crunch moments.
“When I see Rohit, I keep asking this question of myself if he should have accepted captaincy in the first place. I think Rohit feels the panic on occasion and lets pressure get to him. The pressure of captaincy cripples you, and it happened with Virat Kohli also. That's why you don't win a major tournament," Akhtar opined.
However, Akhtar had something positive to say as well, as he mentioned how Rohit Sharma had a team that could win the upcoming ICC World Cup.
"Make no mistake, Rohit does have the team to win the World Cup. As a batter, he is perhaps more talented than Virat Kohli. He is a classical batsman and the kind of shots he plays, it is just mind-blowing. But with captaincy, is he able to do that? Let him prove me wrong and all of us wrong, for that's what all of India will want him to do in this World Cup," he further stressed.
India will open its World Cup campaign on October 8 against Australia in Chennai.
