India captain Rohit Sharma’s ongoing poor form has been a concern for the team as they began their T20 World Cup 2024 Super 8s stage. India defeated Afghanistan by 47 runs to earn their first points in this second stage of the tournament.
India had opted to bat first after Rohit Sharma won the toss. Suryakumar's 53 off 28 balls and Hardik Pandya’s 32 helped India post 181/8 in 20 overs. Fazalhaq Farooqi and Rashid Khan picked three wickets each.
In reply, Jasprit Bumrah (3/7) and Arshdeep Singh (3/36) starred with the ball as Afghanistan was bundled out for 134 runs and India won by 47 runs.
Rohit Sharma, who opened the innings, could only manage 8 runs as his poor fortune with the willow continued. Rohit had started his T20 World Cup well, with a score of 52* against Ireland in a brilliant win. However, since then, he has made 13 against Pakistan and 3 against the USA.
While trying to play a cross-batted shot on a fuller delivery of Afghanistan's Fazalhaq Farooqi, Rohit hit the ball in the air and got caught out at mid-on. This reignited the debate of Rohit Sharma’s problems against left-arm pacers.
But Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar has come out in defense of Rohit.
"He is an experienced batter. He knows what he has got to do. You cannot really tell Rohit Sharma to change his game because of the angle of the bowler. Yes, sometimes you might say, because of the angle, don't hit towards the on-side, maybe look to play the inside-out shot over extra cover. Either thing you try and maybe understand that is what he should have done," said Gavaskar on Star Sports after the game.
"But a man who has got so much of tons and tons of experience of playing limited-overs cricket doesn't need to. He has got out. At the end of the day, batters have some way to get out. If you get out caught behind you can't say you have got a weakness against the off-stump. If you have scored 10,000 to 15,000 runs and get out maybe 40 times outside off-stump that doesn't feel there is a weakness," he added.
India will next face Australia on June 22 in Antigua.
