With the T20 World Cup 2022 just around the corner, the Indian cricket team remains in experimental mode. The Rohit Sharma led Indian side continues to look for a few answers before they finalize their 15-member squad for the marque event.
In the absence of KL Rahul, the Indian cricket team has made some unusual moves as far as the opening position is concerned. Team India has surprisingly gone ahead with Suryakumar Yadav as an opener alongside Rohit. Earlier keeper-batter Rishabh Pant was tried at the top position in the few games against England.
However, in the first two T20Is against Windies, the move hasn’t been fruitful. The bold move by Rohit Sharma raised many eyebrows, especially considering Ishan Kishan is warming the bench.
Kris Srikanth Slammed Rohit Sharma
The latest one to raise his voice on this is former Indian cricketer Kris Srikanth, who was left furious with the decision of team India. Recently, Kris hit out at Rohit Sharma for such experiments, suggesting Suryakumar Yadav should play at the No. 4 position in T20Is. He said:
“Suryakumar Yadav is a brilliant player at No.4. He should be batting at No.4 in the T20 World Cup. So why do you want to make him open. If you want someone to open, drop Shreyas Iyer and pick Ishan Kishan instead. What I am trying to say is simple…don’t spoil the cricketer like Suryakumar Yadav. Please don’t do that. I will tell you what will, after a couple of failures he will lose his confidence. Cricket is a confidence game,”
Srikanth feels such experiments with SKY could result in the batter losing his confidence in himself going into the marque event in Australia. Speaking about the same, he said:
“Whatever it was, I completely failed to understand it. You ought to have used Rishabh Pant today if you were planning to use him as the opener for a couple of games. Give him five chances at least. In addition, Rohit Sharma, the captain, and Rahul Dravid, the coach, support the players for at least 5–6 games,”
In the 2nd T20I last night, Suryakumar could only score 11 runs off 6 balls before he was dismissed by Obed McCoy who bagged as many as 6 wickets in the game.
India suffered a five-wicket defeat to West Indies in the second T20I match of the ongoing series. Despite putting up a mediocre total of 138 runs on the board, team India did a good job with the ball taking the game to the final over, but eventually conceded a defeat.
