Former Indian World Cup winner Sunil Gavaskar questioned Rohit Sharma’s shot selection in the ODI World Cup final against the powerful Australian side, which put the team under tremendous pressure at the showpiece event. The dismissal of the Indian captain occurred at an inopportune time for Team India, and the host nation was unable to recover.
Rohit Sharma had struck a six and a four off two successive Glenn Maxwell deliveries, but he went another big one and ended up losing his wicket. Travis Head grabbed a sensational catch, and the captain was dismissed after scoring 47 runs off 31 balls followed by Shreyas Iyer’s wicket which put more pressure on KL Rahul and Virat Kohli in the middle overs.
In his column for Sportstar, Sunil Gavaskar feels that Rohit Sharma’s wicket was the turning point in the game which dashed the Men in Blue’s hopes of scoring 300 runs at the Sluggish Ahmedabad wicket and questioned whether he tried to be too greedy to take on Glenn Maxwell in the final over of the powerplay.
“Travis Head’s superlative turning and running back catch dashed India’s hopes of getting a 300-plus score. That catch dismissed Rohit Sharma, who once again stormed his way to another quickfire 40-plus. That wicket fell in the final over of the first Powerplay where there are only two fielders allowed outside the 30-metre circle”.
“He had already hit a six and a four in the over and was obviously trying to capitalise on the few deliveries left before the Powerplay finished. Was he being too greedy? Could he not have curbed himself since Shubman Gill had already been dismissed?” Sunil Gavaskar said.
Rohit Sharma was going aggressive against Australia, as he has been in almost every ODI World Cup this year The game was thought to have changed in the tenth over of India’s innings when Head made an incredible catch while sprinting backwards to send India skipper Rohit Sharma back to the pavilion.
The Fifth Bowler’s Quota For Australia Was Always A Bit Of A Lottery – Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar believes that Australia were fortunate to bowl out their fifth bowler’s quota with their all-rounders, where they also got a critical wicket of Rohit Sharma with Glenn Maxwell, and that the Indian team fell at least 30 runs short, causing the side to lose in the showcase final.
“The fifth bowler’s quota for Australia was always a bit of a lottery, and this time, it worked as it not only got the crucial wicket of the Indian captain but also made the other Indian batters play the non-regular bowlers even more carefully, and thereby lose out on perhaps 30 runs at least. Whether those runs would have made the difference is debatable,” Sunil Gavaskar added.
Australia took advantage of the slowness of the surface, squeezing 10 overs between Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, and Mitchell Marsh, which paid for the team big time. The Pat Cummins-led side chased down the total in 43 overs to win their Sixth ODI World Cup title.
