Cricketer turned commentator Sunil Gavaskar was disappointed after Rohit Sharma missed out on playing the first ODI against Australia due to family commitments. As a result, Hardik Pandya was asked to lead the team in Rohit’s absence. The Men in Blue had a terrible three-match ODI series as they lost to Australia by 2-1 on Wednesday.
“I think he needs to play every game. You can't have a captain who is there for one match and not there for the rest. It is so important. It can happen to any other player. I know it was a family commitment, so he had to be there. That's understandable,” Gavaskar said while commentating on Star Sports.
“When it comes to the World Cup, you can't have a family commitment; it's as simple as that. Maybe before that, finish everything that you have unless it's an emergency. Emergency is something completely different.”
“You need continuity in leadership. There's a feeling that you have got everybody with you, otherwise there are two leaders. Then there are two leaders that the team is looking at,” Gavaskar added.
Talking about the final ODI, while chasing a total of 270, Indian batters perished and were restricted to just 248 runs as Australia won the match by 21 runs. India's Mr 360, Suryakumar Yadav failed to score again and became the sixth Indian batter to make three back-to-back ducks in ODIs. Former greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan alongside Ishant Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah are on the list.
For Australia, Adam Zampa came up with the figures of 4 for 45 runs while Aston Agar scalped two for 41 runs, giving away just 86 runs in the 20 overs between them.