Rohit Sharma, who had been facing a lot of criticism due to his lackluster performances, won the hearts of the Indians due to his aggressive captaincy and batting during the 2023 ODI World Cup. The Indian captain is again facing criticism due to his unimpressive performances in the ongoing Test series against England.
India and England are playing the second Test at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Vizag. After winning the toss, Sharma chose to bat first and opened India’s innings alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal.
As India are not getting the services of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, Sharma wanted to play defensively, but it did him no good. From 41 balls, Sharma could only muster 14 runs before he was sent to the pavilion by debutant Shoaib Bashir. This led to an uproar on social media because, in the first Test, Sharma could score just 24 and 39 runs in the two innings.
And after his flop show with the bat, former England captain Kevin Pietersen criticized Sharma’s “lazy” approach. Pieterson, though he praised out-of-form Shubman Gill for his 46-ball 34, called out Sharma’s innings, which, according to the former English captain, was in “slow motion“.
On this wicket, against a very young and inexperienced bowling attack, he will be looking at his dismissal and thinking, 'How on earth did I get myself out here?' Pietersen said on JioCinema
That (the dismissal) was quite lazy. Yes, it is instinctive to knock the ball towards the leg side. But there was no urgency in what led to the dismissal. Pietersen added
Kevin Pietersen slams Shreyas Iyer after flop show against England
India’s middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer also did poorly in the first innings. From 59 balls, he could score just 27 runs with four boundaries before edging the ball off the first Test match’s hero Tom Hartley to the wicketkeeper.
Kevin Pietersen, on JioCinema, said Iyer is going to think about why he did not score a century in the absence of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and Ravindra Jadeja. The 43-year-old opined that Iyer lost his wicket due to his “sloppy” batting.
Notably, in the two innings of the first Test, Iyer scored 35 and 13 runs respectively.
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