Shoaib Akhtar slams Rohit Sharma's captaincy following India's World Cup exit

Indian team in action (Source: AP)

India crashed out of the T20 World Cup 2022 after a defeat to England in the semi finals on Thursday. 

The Three Lions picked up a comprehensive 10-wicket win over title favourites India and former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar has now slammed (h/t Hindustan Times) Rohit Sharma and his captaincy throughout the tournament. 

“Was he ready for the captaincy? I still haven't received an answer to this question. We all knew that he wanted to be the skipper. But this is not an easy task to do. You have to live and breathe captaincy and also have to sacrifice family life. That is why Rohit should be spending more time with the team which will help him in building the team as well. He just looked a bit depressed and off.

“With captaincy comes responsibility. If the team performs, you get the credit but when you face criticisms, you don't point fingers at anyone. And Rohit Sharma's continuation, I won't be able to see that. Because he is close to his retirement in T20 format. Kohli took so much of time just to realise that captaincy is now gone and that he needs to come of that phase. Yet he took breaks from the game and ten somehow, luckily, Pakistan were troubled by Kohli. Now he is in a good space. I think for Rohit Sharma, it has been too much to ask from him.”

The Indian opener endured a disastrous campaign as a batsman and he made negligible impact with the bat at the top of the order. 

The poor performance of the Indian batters during powerplays has proven to be costly in the tournament and Rohit Sharma failed to swing the game in his team's favour as a captain either. 

Some of his bowling choices in the semi final against England was criticised heavily after the game as well. 

India are expected to make wholesale changes to their T20I squad over the next few months and it will be interesting to see whether Rohit Sharma is retained as the captain of the side. In all honestly, India should look to build for the future and the time seems right to part ways with some of the senior members of the squad. 

Hardik Pandya has been tipped to lead the Men in Blue in the shortest format of the game. 

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