Indian skipper Rohit Sharma insisted that he is not worried about Akshar Patel's mediocre run in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. He also revealed why the spinner was not given a full quota of his overs in the tournament.
Akshar has failed to deliver as per expectations in the ongoing tournament so far in Australia, as he could take only three wickets, and even the spinner leaked 40 runs in 3.2 overs while taking only one wicket during Team India’s 71-run win over Zimbabwe in their last Super 12 match at the MCG.
Rohit Sharma said at the press conference: “To be honest, not really worried, as such, because he hardly got to bowl in this tournament. Except for that game against the Netherlands, he's not bowled full overs of his quota, only because of the condition that has to offer. We've got four seamers who have particularly bowled all of their quotas, which means the spinners will not bowl their overs.”
The Indian skipper continued, “If you look at the conditions, except Sydney, all the grounds we've played had a lot to offer to the seamers, which means we never got an opportunity to bowl Axar in the powerplay, which is his specialty, and yeah, honestly have not looked too much into his bowling and gotten worried about his performance because we do understand his quality and the series that we played before coming here bowled exceptionally well.”
Rohit also opened up about his conversation with Axar in the lead-up to the semi-final against England at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday (November 10).
He said, “Guys can have one bad tournament; it doesn't mean that he's out of form or not bowling well or not been able to execute plans. I thought the kind of space he's in for me that is important, and when I talked to him, when I hear his thoughts, I pretty much feel that he's in a good space, and that is exactly what we want when you're about to play a game like that.”
(With PTI/ANI Inputs)
