Rohit Sharma was surprisingly demoted to no.3 in the crunch game between India and New Zealand on October 31st in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021. Instead, India opened with Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul.
However, India only managed 110/7 in 20 overs and lost to the Black Caps by 8 wickets, their second consecutive loss in the tournament. Much has been made of this controversial decision to not open with Rohit and while India team management has explained the rationale by saying they wanted to break the monotony of right-handers at the top.
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However, former India captain Virender Sehwag has likened this decision to move Rohit to no.3 with Sachin Tendulkar being asked to bat at no.4 during India horror-run in the 2007 ICC World Cup in West Indies. The Men in Blue under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and were knocked out of the tournament in the league stages itself.
"In 2007, we made two mistakes. We were chasing really well. We won 17 consecutive matches while chasing but then when the 50-over World Cup came, our coach said that we need batting practice. But then I said that let us win two matches first and then we can have batting practice in the next six games. But he said no,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
Sehwag also explained that Sachin wasn't needed to balance the middle-order as India already had the likes of Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, and MS Dhoni to play that role.
“The other mistake was that when the opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly were performing so well, before that from 2003-06 Sehwag and Sachin's opening partnership was also working well, why were they broken? Why was it said that if Sachin Tendulkar plays in the middle order then he can control the middle order. You already had three players to control; Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. So why did you need a fourth player to control the middle order", he stated.
India will now face Afghanistan on November 3 in Abu Dhabi.
