Virender Sehwag Disagrees With Rohit Sharma On Reasoning For India's Semi-Final Defeat

India captain Rohit Sharma was quick to point out the team's failure with the ball after suffering a humiliating 10-wicket defeat at the hands of England in the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final. The result sent India crashing out of the tournament in an embarrassing fashion. While Rohit felt that the bowlers let the team down while defending a total of 168 runs, former India opener Virender Sehwag isn't in agreement. Sehwag feels it was the way India batted in the first 10 overs, that cost them the match.

In a chat on Cricbuzz after the conclusion of the second semi-final on Thursday, Sehwag highlighted how India's failure to make the most of powerplay prevented them from putting a big total on the board. 168 runs, as per the attacking opening batter, wasn't a par score on the pitch.

"If the top order has batted 12 overs to just score 82 runs (77), then expecting the rest of the batters to come in and play fearless cricket and score 100 runs in eight overs, that is also not right. Yes, the average total of this ground maybe 150-160 and you ended up making more than that. But on the day itself, if one batter gets set on that pitch, the average total doesn't matter. We have seen this happening a number of times here at the Wankhede stadium or the Feroz Shah Kotla or in even in Chennai. Today's game could not have been won with scores of 150-160," Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.

"New Zealand played a certain way against Australia (in their first match) but they didn't do that again in the semi-final and they got knocked out. If India feel that they made an above-par total and it was the bowling unit's fault that the team lost, I don't agree with that. India lost the match in the first 10 overs when the batters did not give the kind of start that was required," he said.

In the post-match presentation ceremony, India captain Rohit said: "Pretty disappointed how it turned up today. We batted well at the backend to get that score. We were not up to the mark with the ball, we couldn't turn up today. It's all about handling the pressure in knockout games. All these guys have played enough to understand that. These guys have played under pressure in IPL games, it's all about keeping calm," he added.

India now have no option but to return home and regroup for the forthcoming 2023 ODI World Cup. As for the 2024 T20 World Cup, plenty of changes are expected to be made.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team England Cricket Team Rohit Sharma Virender Sehwag ICC T20 World Cup 2022 Cricket