India shouldn't have demoted Rohit Sharma against New Zealand: Gavaskar

India suffered a big blow to their T20 world Cup semi-final hopes against New Zealand on Sunday, losing by 8 wickets at the Dubai International stadium. The Virat Kohli led team once again suffered batting collapse with none of the top order batsmen scoring more than 20 runs. Opener KL Rahul scored 18 runs off 16 balls, while Ishan Kishan who was promoted ahead of Rohit Sharma, added only four runs. India’s regular opener and highly rated white ball cricketer Rohit was demoted to number 3 position while Kohli batted at 4. Rohit managed only a 14 ball 14 run while Kohli scored 9 off 17 balls.

India’s decision to demote Rohit to number 3 position hasn’t gone down well with the former cricketers. Speaking to Sports tak, former India opener Sunil Gavaskar said, “I don’t know if it’s the fear of failure or something else. But the changes in the batting order didn’t help the team. A big player like Rohit Sharma is sent at no.3. And then someone like Kohli, who has scored so many runs at no.3, comes to bat at No.4. Then you have a young player like Ishan Kishan, who has been given the responsibility to open the batting.”

The legendary cricketer also added that the decision could have affected Rohit’s confidence.

“See, Ishan Kishan is like a hit-or-miss player. He will make runs in one match and then he won’t in the others. So for this sort of player it would be better if you make him play at no.4 or 5 and then he can swing his bat on the basis of the situation. But here you sent him to open so what happened is that you told Rohit Sharma that we don’t have confidence in you facing the left-arm bowling of Trent Boult. If you do that to a player who has played in that position for so many years, he will also think that he actually doesn’t have the ability.”

“If Ishan Kishan would have scored 70 runs today, we would have applauded the move. But when the move doesn’t work, you get criticised,” he further added.

Meanwhile World Cup winner Gautam Gambhir was also baffled by the team management’s decision to bat India’s vice captain at number 3 position.

Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Gambhir said “If you expect Ishan Kishan to do something that Rohit Sharma can’t then there are issues and it’s the wrong mindset. If you are thinking that Ishan Kishan will give you a flying start of 60 runs in the first six overs and then Virat and Rohit can come and milk it, it is wrong because we haven’t seen a better white-ball cricketer than Rohit Sharma. The player has four T20I hundreds and you are still batting him at No.3 then it’s negative thinking,”

India’s dismal innings folded for 110 runs for the loss of 7 wickets with Ravidra Jadeja being the top scorer with 26 runs. In response New Zealand chased down the target for the loss of only two wickets with 33 balls remaining. Daryl Mitchell led the New Zealand chase with a 35 ball 49 while his opening partner Martin Guptill managed 20 runs. Although both openers were dismissed, number 3 batsman Kane Williamson scored a 31 ball 33 to take his team through.