Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar came down hard on critics of India captain Rohit Sharma over his batting, after the right-hander hammered 92 runs in India’s win over Australia in T20 World Cup 2024.
India defeated Australia by 24 after Rohit Sharma’s brilliant 92 helped the Men in Blue put up 205/5 in 20 overs. Then despite Travis Head’s 76, Australia was kept to 181/7 with Arshdeep Singh taking three and Kuldeep Yadav taking two wickets.
With this win, India also qualified for the semi-finals and will now clash with England in Guyana on June 27.
Speaking after the game, Gavaskar mocked Star Sports after Sharma took apart Mitchell Starc in the powerplay. Sharma hit four sixes off Mitchell Starc and deposited the bowler for 29 runs in a single over.
Gavaskar asked if Star Sports would all Rohit weak against left-arm pacers since the India captain got out to Starc's yorker in the 12th over of the game, after completing his demolition job.
"Just thinking about Rohit Sharma once again, he got out to a left-hander. So, before the next match, are we going to do another segment about his weakness to left-handers? He got to a left hander no? So, another segment next time,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
Australia captain Aaron Finch came to the defence of the broadcaster and argued that Rohit had been playing left-arm seamers for a long time and had bettered his record in recent years.
"There are more left-armers playing now, and they're genuine swing bowlers. A lot of them as well, particularly up front. You look at Trent Bolt, Mitchell Starc, Shaheen Shah Afridi, your left-arm swing bowler. So that poses a challenge to an opening batter," Finch said.
Gavaskar refused to budge and responded once more, claiming that players get out trying to smash aggressive strokes against bowlers who bring the ball into the body.
"That's the thing, with the new ball they are going to get the ball is going to swing. And if you are looking to play attacking shots where you know your bat is a little in front of the pad, you are going to be out LBW, you are going to be out bowled. So I don't think you should look too much at that," Gavaskar concluded.
Sunil Gavaskar then turned his focus on Virat Kohli’s struggles with the bat as he got out for a duck against Australia. Virat Kohli's scores in the T20 World Cup 2024 so far read - 1, 4, 0, 24, 37, 0.
Sunil Gavaskar opined that the balance of Virat Kohli while stepping out needed to be improved.
"The way he batted in Barbados, made 24, but the ball was hitting the middle of the bat. The same thing happened in Antigua. One one technical thing that I want to talk about is that during the IPL, when he used to step out and play, his balance was great. But here his balance is not that good. For that reason the ball is going on to the stumps when he misses or the ball is not being middled," Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
"The shots he is getting out to, see them. In Antigua, what happened against Bangladesh, his balance was not right. Only those two shots which saw him getting out, the balance was not good. If his balance is right, then there is nothing else to worry about. The amount of time he spends on the pitch will give him more confidence,” he added.
India will now wait for June 27 to clash with England in the semi-final.
(Star Sports inputs)
