Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir slammed the Indian captain Virat Kohli after the defeat against New Zealand on Sunday, October 31. Gambhir broke his silence on India’s shambolic defeat in the T20 World Cup 2021 and questioned the team management for demoting Rohit Sharma at no. 3 in a must-win game against New Zealand on Sunday.
Gambhir said that Indian captain Virat Kohli lacks calm in crunch matches and reacting to everything doesn’t help you win the matches. The former cricketer said that Rohit has been India’s best white-ball cricketer in recent years and changing his position in a crucial match was the result of negative thinking from the think tank.
Gautam Gambhir said this while speaking with ESPNcricinfo. He said that you cannot expect Ishan Kishan to play better than Rohit Sharma in the top position that you don’t change your batting order in crucial games and that too against a giant side like New Zealand.
Team India on October 31, conceded a heavy eight-wicket defeat against Kane Williamson’s men. With Suryakumar Yadav being unavailable, Kohli included Ishan Kishan in the playing XI and decided to open the innings with KL Rahul and Kishan and demoted regular opener, Rohit Sharma, to no 3. However, this move backfired to team India as they were restricted to just 110 runs in 20 overs of the match.
The former cricketer also said that this team lacks mental strength to fight in any ICC tournaments.
Read Also: T20 World Cup, India vs New Zealand: Repeating the horrors of 2007, as India on the brink of exit
“This game was literally like a quarterfinal. The problem is with the mental toughness of the side. Suddenly when you know you have got to win the game and can’t make mistakes, in bilaterals it’s different because you can make mistakes there. But in these kinds of games, I don’t think India has got that mental strength,” Gambhir added.
With this loss, India is now on the brink to crash out of the tournament as, Pakistan is already sealed their berth in the semi-final and for New Zealand, they need to beat Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia in their upcoming group-2 matches.