After India’s Humiliating Exit, Rohit Sharma Throws Teammates Under The Bus To Save Himself
Indian players failed to handle the pressure when it mattered the most and crashed out of another major ICC tournament.
This time, it was England who dealt the Rohit Sharma-led side a knockout punch, defeating them by 10 wickets in the semi-finals of the 2022 T20 World Cup.
Thanks to Hardik Pandya’s heroics, the Men in Blue managed to post a below-par but fighting total on the board, but the bowlers produced their worst performance of the competition.
The way our bowlers bowled it seemed as if there was a competition between them and Indian batters as to who would perform worse. England openers made sure that the Indian bowlers didn’t lose that fight.
Buttler and Alex Hales smashed them to all parts of the ground and chased down the 169-run target with 24 balls to spare and helped Indian bowlers give a tough fight to their batting unit for the worst performance of the night.
Not just batting and bowling, the Indian fielders were not too far behind either. Even they played an important role in ensuring India’s humiliating exit from the tournament.
After the defeat, Indian captain Rohit Sharma, who has been miserable the whole tournament, had the audacity to come out and throw his teammates under the bus. During the post-match press conference, the 35-year-old was asked why Team India plays differently in the bilateral series and chokes in the ICC knockout games. Why do our players crumble under pressure?
Rohit, who in complete contrast to the hype he created about the team’s fearless approach, didn’t show any intent throughout the tournament, threw his teammates under the bus, blaming them for not handling the pressure.
The Indian skipper argued that handling pressure was an individual thing, it was something which can’t be taught. He had no answer as to why these players who are used to playing high-pressure matches in IPL every year, couldn’t control their nerves while playing for India.
“When it comes to knockout stages, it’s all about handling the pressure. Depends on the individual as well. You can’t teach anyone to handle pressure. When these guys play the playoffs in the IPL and all that, those are high-pressure games, and they’re able to handle it,” Rohit said, when asked about the team crumbling under pressure.
“It’s pretty disappointing how we turned up today. I thought we still batted pretty well at the back end to get to that score, but we were not good enough with the ball. It was definitely not a wicket where a team can come and chase it down in 16 overs. With the ball, we didn’t turn up today. The way we started with the ball was not ideal. We were a little nervy, but you have to give credit to the openers as well,” he added.
The way English openers made light work of India’s modest total gave the impression that the pitch was a batting paradise and, barring Hardik, none of our batters could apply themselves.
Yet, the Indian skipper didn’t say a single word against the batting unit. In fact, he was content with the runs they put on the board and called it a fighting score. He put the bill squarely on the bowlers saying they just didn’t turn up in the match.
And it made sense. He himself let the team down the whole tournament with his timid approach, and pointing fingers at batters would have made him the prime culprit of India’s humiliating defeat.
