Team India continued their aggressive strategy as Rohit Sharma took rest for the Asia Cup Super 4 match against Afghanistan in team India’s final Asia Cup match on Thursday.
India made three changes to their starting XI from the previous game, with opener KL Rahul being chosen the interim captain in Rohit’s absence.
India’s performance in the tournament hasn’t been great because their starting XI in the Super 4 matches hasn’t been balanced. India’s idea of using two pacers and a fast-bowling all-rounder in Hardik Pandya flopped. In addition, Rohit failed to use Deepak Hooda with the ball, casting doubt on India’s selection methodology.
Rahul stated that Rohit needed a break after he talked about how difficult it was to play in Dubai’s oppressive heat and humidity.
“Rohit wants to take a break, playing back-to-back is not easy in these conditions. Yuzi (Chahal), Rohit and Hardik miss out. Chahar, Karthik and Axar come in,” Rahul said.
Given that Rohit has already missed numerous games for India this year in order to manage his workload, the supporters were not at all impressed by him taking another break. While others made fun of Rahul for his lacklustre record as a captain.
“Even coming into this tournament, we had the T20 World Cup in mind. It’s a good learning for us to play such a tournament before the World Cup. We have learnt a few things from the losses,” stated Rahul at the toss.
Indian team given chance to Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel and Deepak Chahar in the playing for the Afghanistan game.
In their opening Super 4 encounter against Pakistan, India suffered a five-wicket loss, while in their second match against Sri Lanka, they lost by six wickets.
Karthik had played in both matches of the group stage against Pakistan and Hong Kong, but was benched in the Super 4 games following an injury to all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
In the meanwhile, Chahar was added to the team after Avesh Khan was forced to withdraw due to illness. Axar was also brought in to take over for Jadeja.
