Ex-England captain blasts Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, says Kohli would have led India to win at Hyderabad

The Indian cricket team did not have a promising start to the five-match Test series against England having conceded a defeat in the opening fixture. Chasing a total of 231, Team India fell short by 28 runs in Hyderabad. Following the loss in the series opener, many criticised Indian cricket team skipper Rohit Sharma’s style of leadership. Former England cricket team captain Michael Vaughan has now stated that India probably would not have lost the match had Virat Kohli been leading the hosts. Vaughan, at the same time, did not forget to acknowledge Rohit’s caliber and quality as the leader of the Indian team.

“They missed Virat Kohli’s captaincy massively in Test cricket. Under Virat’s captaincy that week, India wouldn’t have lost the game. Rohit is a legend and a great player. But I felt he just switched off completely,” Vaughan said during a discussion on the YouTube channel ‘Club Prairie Fire’.

Vaughan even felt that Rohit’s captaincy was “very, very average.” The ex-England cricketer went on to add that Rohit seemed clueless while dealing with Ollie Pope’s impressive batting in the first Test in Hyderabad.

“I thought Rohit Sharma’s captaincy was very, very average. I thought he was so reactive, I don’t think he manoeuvred his field or was proactive with his bowling changes. And he didn’t have any answer to Ollie Pope’s sweeps or reverse sweeps,” Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.

The Indian cricket team will now be desperately looking for a victory in the second Test match scheduled to start from February 2 in Visakhapatnam. The hosts will be without big names like Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul in the next fixture due to injury issues.

While all-rounder Jadeja suffered a hamstring injury during the first Test, Rahul complained of a right quadriceps pain. Sarfaraz Khan, Sourabh Kumar and Washington Sundar were later included in Team India’s Test squad as replacements.

India’s updated squad for second Test against England: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Sourabh Kumar.

Ex-England captain blasts Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, says Kohli would have led India to win at HyderabadRead More