Team India came up with a historic win against Pakistan in their World Cup opener in Australia. The Indian team showed great bowling in the first innings to halt their arch-rivals to a chaseable score. It was the Indian top-order batters however who could not emulate their past performance and failed at the biggest stage. Virat Kohli came up with a batting masterclass and snatched the win from the jaws of defeat.
KL Rahul was the first to depart at just 4 runs in the second over. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma also faltered under pressure and gave away at just 4 runs in the fourth over. The two in the face of a daunting task failed to spark a good fight and left the team in limbo. Suryakumar Yadav also failed to convert his good start into something bigger and went back to the dressing room after making 15 runs.
Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar has reiterated the current view on Indian openers on his YouTube channel.
“India openers ki baat karenge, thore dabe lag rahe hai, thode dare-dare lag rahe hai. Rohit Sharma as a captain apne aap ko calm down kare, apni batting gawa raha hai aur KL Rahul jyada focus karke khudko fasa raha hai, wo na kare (India’s openers are looking intimidated and scared. Rohit needs to calm down as a captain, his batting is bearing the brunt of it. KL Rahul is getting trapped because of his extra focused approach, he shouldn’t do so),” said Akhtar on his YouTube channel.
Akhtar has said what many have been saying about India’s opening in big matches. Despite all the talk of a ‘changed approach’ India openers seem quite scared of losing their wicket and do exactly the same in the process.
This proves to be a double-edged sword as they are not able to add quick runs to the scoreboard either. More often than now, this has become the reason for India’s loss. It would be interesting to see how the Men in Blue get over their opening woes going forward into the 20-20 World Cup. India play their next match against the Netherlands on October 27th in Sydney.
