T20 World Cup LIVE – Who decided to demote Rohit Sharma to No 3? As KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan stepped out to open against New Zealand in the last T20 World Cup match, one question everyone raised was where is Rohit Sharma? The more knowledgeable asked why drop your best opener for over a decade in favour of a newbie? Who took the decision. InsideSport can now finally reveal who took the decision – Check details: Follow T20 World Cup LIVE Updates on InsideSport.in
Who demoted Rohit Sharma to No 3? Was it Virat Kohli or was it Ravi Shastri’s idea to send Rohit to bat at No. 3? Or was it someone else?
Multiple theories, rumors are doing the rounds but when InsideSport checked with their sources in the team India camp – we were informed it was a collective decision by the Indian team management but the idea was initiated surprisingly by mentor MS Dhoni.
Once the idea was floated, everyone including Virat, Shastri, Rohit himself seconded it.
“It was a collective team management’s call but Dhoni initiated the idea & everyone else including coach and captain seconded it,” revealed the source in the Indian team.
“How things went was that Suryakumar Yadav was having back spasms the previous night so he was ruled out of the game against New Zealand. The person coming in was Ishan Kishan and he has done well as an opener. The whole management took the call and Rohit is part of that group. He was part of that discussion, having Ishan as an opener tactically made sense. We did not want many left-handers in the late middle-order,” even team India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour confirmed during a virtual press conference ahead of India’s clash against Afghanistan.
T20 World Cup: Finally REVEALED, who took the decision to demote Rohit Sharma as opener vs New Zealand, check details
T20 World Cup: How the decision went wrong?
- In search of a left-hander to counter Trent Boult, India’s batting order collapsed.
- Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are currently India’s most successful opening pair with 1072 runs. Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan lead the way with 1743 runs. The common factor is Rohit.
- Rohit Sharma failed at No 3 and Virat Kohli at No 4.
- KL Rahul had to take shots inside the powerplay and he too gave away his wicket.
- India lacked a finisher as Hardik Pandya’s poor form meant he couldn’t take advantage of the easing wickets in the death overs.
- India made only 110 and lost the match by 8 wickets to New Zealand.
The outcome of the decision was catastrophic, to say the least. Ishan Kishan survived just eight balls, scoring four. As he tried to play an aggressive shot of Trent Boult, his mistimed shot landed at Daryl Mitchell’s palms in the third over. KL Rahul looked in good touch but Tim Southee set him up and he returned to the pavilion in the last over of the powerplay.
As for Rohit Sharma, he lasted 14 balls but scored only 14 as he mistimed an Ish Sodhi delivery to lose his wicket. The end result was India made only 110 and lost the match by 8 wickets.
T20 World Cup: Finally REVEALED, who took the decision to demote Rohit Sharma as opener vs New Zealand, check details
The decision didn’t sit well with many former cricketers and there is a valid reason to that. Sunil Gavaskar, Madan Lal and even former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene questioned the decision. They all have a valid point: What message are you sending by demoting your best T20 batsman? Were they panicking after Shaheen Afridi debacle?
Sunil Gavaskar said: “I don’t know if it is a fear of failure but I know that whatever changes they made to the batting order today did not work. Rohit Sharma is such a great batsman and he has been sent in at No.3. Kohli himself, who has made so many runs at No.3 demotes himself to No.4. A young player like Ishan Kishan has been given the responsibility of opening the batting,” said Gavaskar.
Madan Lal was baffled too. “It is unfortunate because India have looked more impatient than they normally do in both these matches. Many times there are decisions that the captain simply has to take and the decision to demote Rohit Sharma was wrong. He has been playing for so many years at the top but now the entire battling order changes,” Madan Lal said on Sports Tak.
T20 World Cup: Finally REVEALED, who took the decision to demote Rohit Sharma as opener vs New Zealand, check details
Mahela Jayawardene who has nurtured Ishan Kishan at Mumbai Indians too questioned changing the Top 3.
“You can be flexible. But not with your top-three batters. I think most teams if you take, you don’t have too much flexibility in that top three. They are settled. They are the ones who are going to give you that initial tempo, who are going to go about things. And then you have that guy at No. 3 who is going to glue things together and bat in both halves of the innings and the rest of the guys are the ones who will probably get floated in and around,” Jayawardene said on ESPNcricinfo’s show ‘T20 Time Out’.
However, batting coach Vikram Rathour defended the idea to send said Rohit Sharma at No 3 and Ishan Kishan to open saying “it tactically made sense”.
As for Ishan Kishan, he was an obvious choice to return to the Playing XI but not as a top order batsman but rather as a finisher as Hardik Pandya’s cover. But Team India’s inflexibility when it comes to Hardik Pandya was once again on display and despite returning to bowling, the all-rounder made no significant contribution.
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