IND vs AUS, ODI World Cup Final 2023: The Indian team missed the chance to become world champion even under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. India lost by six wickets in the final of the ODI World Cup 2023 against Australia. India had a chance to end the decade-long ICC trophy drought, but the Rohit-led team could not do the same. The team which won 10 consecutive matches ultimately lost the final. There were many such decisions of captain Rohit Sharma who became responsible for India’s defeat. Come, here we are talking about these.
Jadeja was sent to bat in place of Surya
In this match, India had made a good start by batting first, but when Gill and Shreyas failed, Rahul and Kohli took charge of the innings. When Virat was out, Suryakumar Yadav was to come to bat, but Rohit changed the batting order and sent Jadeja to bat. His bet backfired on the team. Jadeja was out after scoring nine runs in 22 balls. This also increased the pressure on Rahul and India’s run pace came to a halt. Later, when Suryakumar came to bat, there was no one to support him. He played cautiously till the end and finally got out while trying to play a big shot. He scored 18 runs in 28 balls. Due to this decision of Rohit, the batting of both Suryakumar and Jadeja flopped.
Shami was handed the new ball
When the Indian team came out to defend 240 runs, Rohit Sharma handed the second new ball to Mohammed Shami. Shami bowled with a slightly older ball throughout the World Cup. Because of this, he was getting light swings and it was difficult for the batsmen to play him. He was continuously taking wickets. When Shami suddenly got the new ball in the final, he could not handle its swing. He kept deviating from his line and proved to be very expensive. For this reason, despite his taking wickets, there was no pressure on the Australian team.
Did not field aggressively
In this match, Australia’s Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne made an excellent partnership and took the match from India’s grasp. While defending 240 runs, one thing was clear this score could be defended only by dismissing the Australian team and the Indian bowlers also had the strength to dismiss the Kangaroo team. In such a situation, captain Rohit did not do aggressive fielding. There were two occasions when the ball took the edge of the bats of both Head and Labuschagne and went to slip, but there was no fielder there. For this reason, when this partnership broke, the match was over.
Did not express confidence in Siraj, who is in second place in the ODI rankings
Rohit Sharma did not express confidence in his important bowler Mohammad Siraj in this match. Siraj has been consistently performing well for India in ODIs since 2022. He has performed well with the new ball and is currently the number two bowler in the ICC rankings. Despite this, Rohit did not express any confidence in him. He was brought in to bowl last. With the old ball, Siraj could not do the wonders that he does in the powerplay, and instead of being an important player for the team, he proved to be a burden in the final.
The sixth bowler was not used
Rohit Sharma used nine bowlers in the match against Netherlands. Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, and captain Rohit himself bowled. Kohli and Rohit also got wickets. After the match, the bowling coach had said in the interview that he was thinking of making Virat bowl in the powerplay and middle overs, but when the Indian bowlers failed in this match, Rohit did not use any of these part-time bowlers. There was a partnership of 192 runs between Head and Labuschagne, but Rohit did not try any part-time bowler.
