Indian captain, Rohit Sharma has come under fire following India’s loss to England in the semi-final of the 20-20 World Cup 2022. Rohit couldn’t contribute much with the bat as he scored just one half-century in the entire tournament against the Netherlands. Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar has also criticized Rohit’s captaincy in the World Cup saying that he looked depressed in the semi-final.
The former speedster questioned whether Rohit was ready to captain India before he got the responsibility.
“Was he ready for the captaincy? I still haven’t received an answer to this question. We all knew that he wanted to be the skipper. But this is not an easy task to do. You have to live and breathe captaincy and also have to sacrifice family life. That is why Rohit should be spending more time with the team which will help him in building the team as well. He just looked a bit depressed and off,” Shoaib Akhtar was quoted as saying on Zee News.
Akhtar further went on to say that he doesn’t see Rohit continuing his captaincy going ahead.
“With captaincy comes responsibility. If the team performs, you get the credit but when you face criticism, you don’t point fingers at anyone. And Rohit Sharma’s continuation, I won’t be able to see that (mujhse dekha nehi jayegi) because he is close to his retirement in T20 format,” Akhtar added.
Akhtar also drew parallels between Rohit Sharma’s condition and Virat Kohli’s condition after he gave up the captaincy.
“Virat Kohli took so much of time just to realise that captaincy is now gone and that he needs to come of that phase. Yet he took breaks from the game and then somehow, luckily, Pakistan were troubled by Kohli. Now he is in a good space. I think for Rohit Sharma, it has been too much to ask from him,” said Akhtar.
Meanwhile, the final of the 20-20 World Cup 2022 will be played between England and Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 13th November. Both teams will be looking to win their second World Cup having won the title once before.
