Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players'Boils down to fear of failure': Ex-Australia star on Rohit, Rahul going 'into a hole' in T20 World cup semi-finals
Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul were not able to put up a partnership against England in the semi-finals of the 2022 T20 World Cup, which India ended up losing by 10 wickets.
India's T20 World Cup campaign came to a rather stunning end on Thursday with a 10-wicket defeat to England in the semi-finals. While captain Rohit Sharma said that India's bowling effort was to blame for the wipe out, former cricketers and fans almost unanimously seem to opine that his efforts with fellow opener KL Rahul and Virat Kohli in the first 10 overs of their innings was as much at fault, if not more.
Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson has said that India's openers had gone into a hole during their innings. India had were stuck on a score of 62/2 at the end of the 10th over. It was only a late surge from Hardik Pandya that helped them reach a score of 168 but England ended up making light of the target. Captain Jos Buttler and opener Alex Hales put up a record opening partnership to ensure that England chase down the total with four overs to spare.
ALSO READ | Greg Barclay re-elected as ICC chairman, Jay Shah to head F&CA committee
"The Indian openers were timid. In the end, it boils down to fear of failure, which is never the right mindset when you are facing the best opposition, especially in T20 cricket where you have to take the game on. It was a really good batting surface. But both Rohit and Rahul went into a hole," Watson told the Times of India. The opening stand lasted just 1.4 overs, with Rahul falling for a run-a-ball five. Rohit, meanwhile struggled his way to 27 off 28 balls before being dismissed in the ninth over.
"England has been dominating the short formats in recent years because it is totally playing fearless cricket. Adelaide is a high-scoring ground and the pitch report had said that it was an incredibly good wicket. 168 was never going to be enough. 180-190 was okay, considering England's batting firepower. And India got to that total only because of Pandya's knock in the last five overs," said Watson.
