Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar blamed Team India’s main strength, "batting" for their embarrassing 10-wicket loss against England in the second semi-final of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2022 at Adelaide Oval on Thursday (November 10).
Asked to bat first, India had a forgettable start, as KL Rahul was dismissed for just 5 runs, and then captain Rohit Sharma (27) and opener Suryakumar Yadav (14) also failed to live up to expectations. However, the Men in Blue managed to post 168/6 on the board against England on the back of brilliant fifties from Virat Kohli (50) and Hardik Pandya (63) at Adelaide Oval.
Then, defending the total, Indian bowlers failed miserably, as Jos Buttler (80*) and Alex Hales (86*) put up an unbeaten 170-run partnership to chase down the target in 16 overs to win the match by 10 wickets and set the T20 World Cup 2022 Final date with Pakistan on November 13 at the MCG.
Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports: “I just think India seem to freeze in these knockout games... particularly with the batting and it is the batting which has been the strength of the Indian team.”
He added, “In the semifinals, the batting has not been as good as it should be. Obviously, at this stage, you are going to get much better bowling attacks than maybe the group stages and that's understandable. But the batting really hasn't got the runs that the bowlers can defend.”
The former Indian skipper signed off by saying that India could have tried Deepak Hooda over Akshar Patel because the hard Australian pitches don’t support a finger spinner at all, and the former could have also helped the side get 15 or 20 extra runs.
