As they get ready to play their first game of the T20 World Cup against Ireland on Wednesday, Rohit Sharma’s Indian team has been criticized for being unprepared by former cricketer Aakash Chopra.
On his YouTube channel on Monday, Chopra asked why despite being among the favorites of winning the trophy, India is still figuring out its playing XI?
Chopra expressed doubts about the team’s readiness referring to on-going uncertainties around the batting order and saying that players should have known their roles before the start of the tournament. “India underprepared for yet another T20 World Cup? Aren’t we still figuring out our batting line-up? Who is opener and finisher? Should we know all these only in WC?” Chopra raised a red flag prior to opening match.
“Yes, India prefer left-right combination but will almost certainly open with two right handers: Kohli and Rohit. Number 3 would be Rishabh Pant; followed by Suryakumar Yadav and its going to depend on India whether they want Shivam Dube or Hardik Pandya next. Then there are Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. There are plenty of southpaws. But what I am asking is why do we have to know this now? We didn’t even discuss about the opening partnership so far?” Said Chopra.
He also compared it with Indian previous T20 world cup squad from 2022. He criticized Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who were not involved in any T20 games between ICC events in 2023. Focusing rather on ODI world cup preparations for December that year.
“Since last T20 World Cup in 2022, we played with almost same XI and same batting order. So what did we change? And none of them was communicated about changed roles as well which is not ideal because none of our seniors played since last WC,” Chopra said.
“I really feel that we aren’t well prepared. We are trying to address it still. There is individual brilliance but what happened the last time was, we made a fuss around the opening spot because between the World Cup in UAE and Australia, we tried many guys for those two positions including Suryakumar Yadav. But ultimately, we opened with Rohit and Rahul, Kohli at 3… absolutely no use. That came back to bite us in the behind. It’s an early warning but we haven’t prepared well,” Chopra explained.
