‘I expected more from him’ – Sunil Gavaskar criticizes Rohit Sharma on his recent captaincy debacles

Rohit Sharma and Sunil Gavaskar. (Photo Source: Getty Images)

Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar in his latest statement took on Rohit Sharma for his captaincy role. Gavaskar was not pleased with Sharma’s leadership in the recently concluded 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) Final. In WTC Final 2023, Australian side defeated Team India by 209 runs and it was India’s back-to-back defeat in WTC Final, however, India was led by Virat Kohli in the inaugural edition of the marquee event in 2021.

Gavaskar also mentioned Rohit’s Indian Premier League (IPL) captaincy record and said he didn’t do justice to his five IPL trophies as skipper. The Indian skipper is currently the joint most successful skipper in the cash-rich league along with MS Dhoni while captaining Mumbai Indians (MI) side. The ex-Indian opener also took on head coach, Rahul Dravid and questioned his decision-making after WTC Final loss.

“I expected more from him (Rohit). In India it is different, but when you do well overseas that is really the test. That is where he has been a little disappointing. Even in the T20 format, with all the experience of the IPL, hundreds of matches as captain, with a mix of best IPL players not being able to get to the finals has been disappointing,” Gavaskar said at the Indian Express Idea exchange.

In the latest edition of the WTC Final, Rohit Sharma-led side was defeated in a one-sided manner after the Indian side opted to bowl. Travis Head and Steve Smith scored a century in the first innings, and Australia posted over 400 where the Asian side was bowled out for 296 in their first innings and never recovered again. Team India’s defeat against the Aussies raised many questions from dropping Ravichandran Ashwin to opting for bowling after winning the toss.

“They should be asking questions, ‘Why did you field first?’ Okay, it was explained at the toss that it was overcast and all. The question after that should be, ‘You didn’t know about Travis Head’s weakness against the short ball?’ Why was the bouncer employed only when he had scored 80 runs? You know, the moment Head came in to bat, in the commentary box, we had Ricky Ponting saying, ‘Bounce him, bounce him.’ Everyone knew about it but we didn’t try,” he further added.

In the end, Dravid and Rohit would surely be looking to end India’s drought of winning the ICC title since 2013 and would be keen to prove their given position during ODI World Cup this year.