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Exclusive: India were arrogant and Rohit's captaincy will be under scrutiny now, says Engineer

India were arrogant and complacent which resulted in their lacklustre performance against England, writes Farokh Engineer

Published: Thu 10 Nov 2022, 8:12 PM

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  • Farokh Engineer

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India's captain Rohit Sharma (left) shakes hands with England captain Jos Buttler after the semifinal. (AFP)

India's captain Rohit Sharma (left) shakes hands with England captain Jos Buttler after the semifinal. (AFP)

England played outstanding cricket today and they thoroughly deserve to be Pakistan's challenger in Sunday's final.

Pakistan outclassed New Zealand in the first semifinal and I think it will be a great spectacle at the MCG between two teams that have peaked at the right time.

But without taking anything away from England, I have to admit that India were completely listless today.

In fact, India were arrogant and complacent which resulted in their lacklustre performance against England.

Naturally, a lot of questions will be asked after the dismal performance.

Those questions will be mainly on team selection. I have been saying time and again that to be at the top there has to be a top-class leg-spinner.

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India do have a couple of top-class leg spinners in Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravi Bishnoi.

I fail to understand why neither of them was given the opportunity.

Maybe, they wanted to strengthen the batting by playing Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel.

But my point is, if your top six batters can't get you runs, Ashwin can't be your saviour either with the bat.

I was also a bit disappointed with Rohit Sharma's captaincy. I would have loved to see a bit more imagination from him.

India, of course, missed their best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah. His injury was a big blow.

His presence was especially missed against England as the seamers just didn’t make any impact against Alex Hales and Jos Buttler. The two England opening batters just savaged the Indian bowlers.

So what are Team India’s plans going ahead?

Are they going to bring a new captain?

I don't know but Rohit's captaincy is clearly affecting his batting performances. He just had one half-century in the entire tournament.

Since taking over the captaincy in the T20 format last year, Rohit has scored just 656 runs in 29 matches with only three half-centuries at a modest average of 24.29.

So Rohit's captaincy and his performance will definitely be under scrutiny now.

And don't forget everybody expected Rohit, who has won five IPL titles as Mumbai Indians captain, to end India's jinx in the knockout games at the ICC tournaments.

There will probably be question marks over the support staff as well.

Will there be a change?

There should not be a knee-jerk reaction. But urgent discussions are needed at the highest level as India, with all the talent at their disposal, certainly need to be at the top in the cricketing world.

Farokh Engineer is a former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman



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