With Pakistan’s victory over Afghanistan, India was eliminated from the ongoing Asia Cup 2022.
The Men in Blue made an impressive start by winning both group stage matches. However, India lost to Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Super 4 round, leaving fans worried and shocked.
Several experts and fans criticized the poor squad selection. Skipper Rohit Sharma also received criticism for his leadership.
The latest to express his views is Irfan Pathan, who highlighted Rohit Sharma’s mistakes.
Firstly, the 37-year-old pointed out that Rohit missed the trick by not using Deepak Hooda as the 6th bowling option in the matches against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“In both the matches, there was no dew, and the pitch had something for the spinners. I feel this is where Rohit lacked. He should have handed the ball to Deepak Hooda.”
Hooda didn’t bowl a single over in both the matches he played. The fans even questioned the strategy and argued that if the team didn’t mean to use Hooda, then why the management didn’t play Dinesh Karthik?
Pathan addressed the second mistake and said that the 35-year-old skipper should have handed Arshdeep the 19th over instead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Bhuvi has been the bowling spearhead for India in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah. However, the seamer has failed to deliver in the death overs.
Pathan added, “Second mistake was handing Bhuvneshwar Kumar the 19th over. I feel young Arshdeep must have been given the penultimate over of the match. The reason being the longer side of the ground would have helped left-arm seamer.”
Pathan concluded by saying that India need a wicket-taking option and must include Mohammed Shami for the World Cup.