’Situation could have been very different..’ Virender Sehwag criticises Rohit Sharma’s shot selection after WC loss

With Pat Cummins-led Australia defeated Rohit Sharma-led India by 6 wickets at the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 Final, played at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on 19 November, they created history by winning the title six times.

Despite an overall stellar performance in the tournament, India's skipper Rohit Sharma came under former India opener Virender Sehwag's criticism radar for his shot selection.

“He may or may not be disappointed by it, but team management would certainly be. The coaching staff will tell him that when you have already hit a 6 and a four, you should not have played that shot. But Rohit thought, it was the last over of the Powerplay and he didn't want to let Maxwell go easy. No doubt, it was a bad shot. You gave me a chance. If he had played it out, the situation could have been very different,” said Sehwag on Cricbuzz.

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“But it seemed a completely different wicket after Rohit was dismissed. Neither anyone could hit a shot, nor the batters were able to rotate the strike,” he added.

What Sharma said after the WC loss:

Speaking after the World Cup loss, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma said, “We were not good enough today. I’m proud of the team, and how we played from game one. It just wasn’t our day. We tried everything, but it wasn’t supposed to be. When Virat and KL were batting we were looking at 270-280, but we kept losing wickets after that. We needed to stitch a big partnership, which is exactly what Australia did."

ALSO READ ICC World Cup 2023: ‘We tried everything, but it wasn’t supposed to be’, says Rohit Sharma after WC loss

"When you have 240 on the bad you have to take early wickets. We got three and we thought another wicket would open up the game. Credit to Travis Head and Marnus, they took it away from us. I thought the wicket got slightly better to bat on under the lights. I don’t want to use that as an excuse - we didn’t bat well enough," he added.

India Vs Australia final:

After winning the toss, Pat Cummins chose to field. Batting first, India gave a target of 241 runs for Australia to chase.

Apart from KL Rahul (68), Virat Kohli (54) and Rohit Sharma (47), no other Indian player could cross 20 runs. And India managed to put just 240 runs on the scoreboard.

For Australia, Mitchell Starc took three wickets, while Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins picked up two wickets each. Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell also clinched one wicket each.

Chasing the target of 241 runs, Australia lost three early wickets, but Travis Head's 137 runs in 120 balls led Australia lift their sixth World Cup.

For India Jasprit Bumrah took two wickets, while Mohammed Shami and Travis Head picked one wicket each.