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'...since Kohli stepped down': Ex-Pakistan captain questions Rohit on India's 'priorities' between WTC, IPL
Rohit Sharma missed out on a chance to win a first ICC title as captain of the Indian team when they lost the WTC final to Australia.
India seemed to be staging a remarkable fightback in the third and fourth days of the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia at the Oval but it all unravelled quite quickly on the last day. Chasing a record target of 444, India ended up being all out in the first session of Day 5 itself, thus losing the match by 209 runs.
In the aftermath, India captain Rohit Sharma had stated that the team would have liked more time to prepare for the Test but former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt has said that if they really wanted that, the players should have pulled out of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL), which was held just before the decisive one-off Test match.
Also read: Rohit Sharma's Test captaincy future in doubt after WTC final loss, selectors to take call after WI series: Report
“Rohit Sharma asked why the final of the World Test Championship takes place in June. He also stated that it should be moved out of England. These are the debates that happen once you don't get favorable results,” Butt said on his Youtube channel.
"Instead, we should talk about priorities. If the WTC final was India's priority, they should have finished the IPL before 20 days. They should have sent their squad to England 15 days before the final to play a couple of matches against county teams."
Butt stated that India's performances in Tests away from home has fallen since Virat Kohli stepped down as captain in early 2022. “India have an impressive away record in Tests. However, it has all been downhill since Virat Kohli stepped down as captain. Things haven't been stable since then. They would have won in India anyway, even without having a captain. One can assess captaincy only when the team tours abroad,” he said.
Kohli had led India to their first-ever Test series win in Australia in 2018/19. In their next tour of the country in 2021/22, India would win the series yet again, although Kohli had to go back home after the first Test, which had ended in a thrashing for the visitors. It was also under his captaincy that India took a 2-1 lead in a five-match Test series in England in 2021. The last Test, however, was only played next year after it was postponed from its original schedule due to a Covid outbreak in the visiting camp.
