Things went horribly downtown for Rohit Sharma led, Team India as they went down fighting against England in the opening Test of the series. Despite securing a 190-run lead in the first innings, India came crashing down in the second as Ollie Pope played a brilliant knock of 196 runs before Tom Hartley came in crashing the Indian party.
There were a lot of discussions about where exactly India went wrong? Well, maybe and just maybe, experts had reasons to believe that Rohit Sharma had errors in his judgment as the captain of the Indian cricket team was unable to get the right moves in time and his persistence with spinners backfired for Team India as things got easier for Ollie Pope in the second innings. Here are three mistakes made by Rohit Sharma in the first Test.
#1 Over-reliability on spinners
In the second innings it was Jasprit Bumrah who bagged four wickets to leave England skittled out but Rohit Sharma continued to persist with the spinners, a move that drew some serious attention altogether. Understandably the Indian spinners were being decoded handsomely by Ollie Pope and he was sweeping them extensively in order to avoid any damage. However, when the fast bowlers came to bowl, things started to look slightly questionable for the English hero. Hence, if Rohit was willing to operate his pacers too in the same breath or may be a spell of 10 overs together, things could have been different.
#2 Lack of thinking outside the box
There are times when you have to go beyond the ordinary. England handed over the ball to Joe Root who was the leading wicket taker for England in the first innings despite not being a regular bowler and this is where thinking beyond the box kicks in. India could have used the likes of a completely unexpected bowler to chip in, a part-timer who could have got the wheels in motion but somehow Rohit wanted to stick to the regular ones.
#3 Throwing his own wicket away despite starts on the board
Believe this or not but Rohit Sharma has started on a feisty note but then crumbled. Being one of the most reliable spinners of spin, Rohit had to stay longer. Now one may say that this doesn’t impact the innings as a captain but then again all other great captains have been picked and blamed every time they threw their wickets away despite being the most reliable name, so why not Rohit?
