The Indian cricket team, currently running in poor form, is receiving a lot of criticism from fans and pundits for their performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup. The Virat Kohli-led side is yet to win a match and will play against Afghanistan in their third Super 12 match on Wednesday. Team India started their campaign with a 10-wicket loss to Pakistan and then faced an eight-wicket defeat against New Zealand. After the loss against New Zealand, India’s batting strategy seemed to many that the team management had made a mistake in dropping Rohit Sharma to No. Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul opened the innings for India along with Rohit in Dubai on Sunday. No. 3 and Kohli at No. 4. He could only manage 110 for seven in 20 overs, which New Zealand achieved with 33 balls to spare.
Former opener Virender Sehwag was not very impressed with the batting strategy and compared it to India’s disastrous performance in the 2007 ODI World Cup. In 2007, the Indian team led by Rahul Dravid was eliminated in the group stage.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, the former cricketer said that the Indian team had made a similar mistake in 2007 and questioned Sachin Tendulkar’s decision to bat at No 4 instead of opening the innings.
He said, “In 2007, we made two mistakes. We were chasing really well. We won 17 matches in a row while chasing but then when the 50-over World Cup came, our coach told us to practice batting. needed”, he said.
“But then I said we win the first two matches and then we can do batting practice in the next six games. But they said no.”
Sehwag also pointed out that Sachin didn’t need to balance the middle order as India already had the role of Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni.
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“The second mistake was that when the opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly was performing so well, Sehwag and Sachin’s opening partnership from 2003-06 was also working well before that, so why did they break up? Why was it said that if Sachin Tendulkar plays in the middle order he can control the middle order. You already had three players to control; Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. So you have to control the middle order. Why was there a need for a fourth player to control”, he said.
He added, “When teams play poorly, you change your strategy and that’s why they play poorly. When you’re doing something good like Cricbuzz’s panelists and you force them to change, it will go down.” , he adds.
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