Michael Vaughan came down hard on Rohit Sharma for not being proactive while captaining India in their opening Test against England at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
Vaughan said that Rohit’s captaincy was ‘average’ and that the Indian skipper was clueless when Ollie Pope was playing sweeps and reverse-sweeps at will.
On Saturday, January 28, Ollie Pope scored 196 runs as England beat the hosts by 28 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the 5-match series. Although it was his attempted reverse-scoop off Jasprit Bumrah that led to his downfall, Pope had already done quite a bit of damage by then.
“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.
Should India have done anything different? Vaughan answers
Vaughan said that India should have changed their tactics when Pope and the other English batters were smothering their bowlers with ease.
The veteran also mentioned that Rohit should have employed more attacking fields and asked the English batters to go over the top.
“The greatest spinner I’ve seen, Shane Warne, would go around the wicket and get the player to sweep the leg side and say good luck trying to do that. I didn’t see that any of that from India.
“It was just all too easy. The way that England play, they will always score boundaries. And by spreading the field, Sharma was basically saying that his bowlers’ best balls would still go for one,” he added.
Pope, in the meantime, won the Player of the Match award after England handed India their maiden Test defeat in Hyderabad.
After England were reduced to 163 for 5 in their second innings, Pope and Ben Foakes put on 112 runs for the sixth wicket. Pope was the last wicket to go down as England set India a target of 231 to chase down.
The Three Lions bowled India out for 202 in 69.2 overs to script the memorable win.
