Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has leapt in defence of Rohit Sharma who is facing criticism from several quarters for some debatable captaincy calls during the ongoing ICC World Test Championship Final (WTC Final) at the Oval, London.
Rohit Sharma’s decision to bowl first after winning the toss was met with severe criticism. Several former cricketers including ex-India skipper Sourav Ganguly opined that the captain should have batted first. The decision to drop Ravichandran Ashwin from the playing eleven has also invited criticism for Rohit and the Indian team-management.
And the criticism has only increased after both of the decisions backfired as Australia have put themselves in the driver’s seat after first two days. India missed Ashwin’s services on the Oval pitch as Australia recovered from a shaky start to post a big total of 469 runs. In reply, India have made a poor start with the bat and were 5 down for just 151 at the end of the second day’s play.
Ricky Ponting defends Rohit Sharma:
With Rohit Sharma facing the heat, Ricky Ponting has defended him. The Australia great opined that Rohit should not be blamed for the decisions as he was not solely responsible for them. Ponting revealed that he saw Rohit having a long chat with head coach Rahul Dravid before deciding to bowl first after winning the toss.
“I know the captain wears the brunt of it (criticism), but I know it’s not only his decision. I saw Rahul Dravid and him out (Rohit) in the middle yesterday morning and they had a long discussion about what they wanted to do at the toss,” Ponting was quoted as saying by the ICC.
“If they wanted to bowl first I think they had to play the four seamers. So far you would say it hasn’t paid off – but there is a long way to go and we probably shouldn’t be too quick to judge,” he added.
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