The Indian cricket team suffered an embarrassing 10-wicket defeat against England in the semi-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. It was a heartbreaking defeat for the Indian cricket team as this is the second team India has suffered a humiliating defeat of 10 wickets.
After this defeat, questions are being raised over the form of senior players including the likes of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin, among others. However, team India head coach Rahul Dravid has defended the experienced players in the team, adding that it wasn’t the right time to talk about their future.
The likes of Rohit, Bhuvneshwar, KL Rahul, and Ashwin didn’t meet the expectations of the fans in the tournament. After the match, when Dravid was asked about the future of the senior players in the team, Dravid said:
“Too early to talk about. These guys (Rohit, Kohli & Bhuvneshwar) have done well. Not the right time to talk about this.”
#TeamIndia put up a fight but it was England who won the match.
We had a solid run till the semifinal & enjoyed a solid support from the fans.
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/5t1NQ2iUeJ #T20WorldCup | #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/5qPAiu8LcL
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 10, 2022
After the match, Rohit Sharma expressed his disappointment with the team’s performance on the day. He felt that it all comes down to handling the pressure in knockout matches and also pointed out that the players have a lot of experience of playing in those situations in the IPL. He said:
“Pretty disappointed how it turned out today. We batted well at the back end to get that score. We were not upto the mark with the ball, we couldn’t turn up today. It’s all about handling the pressure in knockout games. All these guys have played enough to understand that. These guys have played under pressure in IPL games, it’s all about keeping calm.”
He added: “We were nervy to start with, but you got to give credit to their openers, they played really well. I thought it swung a bit in the first over, but not from the right areas. We know the runs are scored square of the wicket, we were aware about it. When we won the first game, it showed a lot of character. The game against Bangladesh, it was a tricky one. I thought we held our nerve and kept executing our plans. Couldn’t do that today,”
England openers Jos Buttler (80 off 49) and Alex Hales (86 off 47) produced a sensational show against Indian bowlers, who looked clueless. After the win, praising the performance of his side, Buttler said:
“I think the character we have shown since then (England’s loss against Ireland) – it has been amazing. We came here very excited, there was a very good feeling. Everyone from 1 to 11 – stood up today. We always want to start fast and aggressive. Rashid was batting at 11, that’s incredible to know that we have such depth. Hales used the dimensions well and he has shown his form. He was brilliant today. It’s important to enjoy this, it was a brilliant performance from us. I think we need to give special credit to Jordan, to bowl 3 overs at the death coming into the semi-final, it was a tough job. He handled the pressure towards the end pretty well, especially bowling against a world class player like Hardik Pandya.”
England will now take on Pakistan in the T20 WC final to be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on November 13.
