Former Australia cricketer Ian Chappel has hit out at Rohit Sharma for his poor batting and confusing captaincy. In his latest column after Day 2 of the Brisbane Test match, Chappel slammed the India captain after a terrible day of play by the visiting side.
Chappel’s comments came after India lost their way, despite digging their claws into the Australian side in the morning session of the game. Australia were reeling after losing 3 wickets for 75 runs, however, recovered in style with Travis Head and Steve Smith, who scored twin centuries.
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Former India head coach and cricketer Ravi Shasri criticised Rohit Sharma’s ultra-defensive fields against Travis Head on air calling it one of the ‘worst set ups’. Shastri felt that with several wide open spaces, the bowlers weren’t able to build pressure with singles being offered easily. David Warner also agreed with Shastri, mentioning that India should’ve attacked Head more.
Chappell was of the same view as well and slammed the India captain with much harsher words.
“His struggles with the bat were only matched by his occasionally confusing captaincy. He appeared to be conservative in both endeavours in Adelaide, but a more aggressive approach may jolt him out of his malaise,” Ian Chappell wrote on ESPNcricinfo.
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Chappell also warned pacer Mohammed Siraj about needling someone like Travis Head. Chapell wrote that the India pacer learnt it the hard way that an ultra-aggressive celebration was not the way to go against someone like Travis Head.
“On the individual side, the ultra-aggressive Travis Head proved that India have not found an answer to his extravagant shot-making. His two-sided confrontation with Mohammed Siraj showed that a theatrical (and expensive) send-off is not the answer to derailing Head, especially when he’s already made 140,” Chappell wrote.
“India need to find a way to seriously challenge Head with appropriate field placings that are matched by some sensibly aggressive bowling. At the moment Head is dominating, and in this mood he’s capable of quickly putting Australia in a position of strength with his middle-order pyrotechnics,” he further added.
At the end of Day 2, Australia had scored 405 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. Alex Carey (45*) and Mitchell Starc (7*) remained unbeaten at the end of the day.
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