Rohit Sharma rubbishes claims of Team India’s conservative approach in knockout stages

Indian captain, Rohit Sharma admitted that India have been under par in the world tournaments in the past nine years. The Men in blue failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the 20-20 world cup last year after losing the first two games against Pakistan and New Zealand. This was the first time India had exited a tournament after the first stage since the 20-20 world cup 2010.

India managed to win their next three matches against Namibia, Scotland, and Afghanistan but it was not enough for them to qualify for the semi-finals as the losses in the two big matches cost them dearly. Rohit Sharma, who took over the reins of the team after the mega event said that India haven’t played conservative cricket.

Rohit came for the pre-series press conference where he expressed his thoughts in front of the media before the T20I series against the West Indies.

“We haven’t got the results in the World Cups but that doesn’t mean we were playing bad cricket for so many years. I don’t agree that we were playing conservative cricket. If you lose an odd game in the World Cup, it seems we were doing things wrong and we didn’t take chances,” Rohit said.

“But if you look [at it], we won probably 80% [71%] of our games leading into the World Cup. If you are conservative, you won’t win these many games,” Rohit was quoted as saying.

“Yes, we didn’t qualify [for the knockouts in 2021], but that happens. It doesn’t mean we were not playing freely. Lately also we haven’t made any such changes; we are playing in the same manner but we have given the freedom to the players to play their game. Because if you play freely, you will get the performances,” Rohit stated.

India are desperate for a world tournament victory for a long time. They last won the Champions Trophy in 2013 under the leadership of MS Dhoni. India will be taking the field in the two major tournaments soon, first the 20-20 world cup this year and then the ODI world cup next year. Captain Rohit Sharma will be eager to break the jinx and finally guide the team to a major trophy win under his leadership.