Former Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir has criticized current Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma for his poor performance in the recently concluded ODI series against Sri Lanka.
Despite India’s dominating win, with a 3-0 series victory and a record-breaking 317-run defeat for Sri Lanka, Gambhir believes that Sharma should be held to the same standard as Virat Kohli, who faced heavy criticism for his century drought from 2019-2022.
Gambhir pointed out that Sharma has struggled with the bat for an extended period of time and is currently one of the underperforming batters in the team. In the third game of the series, Sharma scored 42 (49) and set a new unwanted record of batting without a century in his last 50 international innings, the second-longest streak in his career.
Gambhir’s comments come after India’s dominant performance in the series, where they won 3-0, with Sharma scoring 42 runs in the final match. “Rohit’s struggles with the bat have been ongoing for a while now. It’s not just about one or two bad innings. This has been dragging on for a while and it’s something that team management needs to address,” he added.
While most experts praised the team’s performance, Gambhir called for fans and critics to hold Sharma accountable for his performance, stating, “We should assess Rohit in the same space as Virat. We should be equally harsh on him as we were on Kohli. Not having a hundred in the last 50 innings is a big thing, especially for a player like Rohit.”
Gambhir’s comments have sparked a debate among fans and experts, with some agreeing with his assessment of Sharma’s performance, while others have defended the Indian opener, pointing out that he has been a vital contributor to the team’s success in the past.
Here are some tweets:
The pressure is now on Sharma to prove himself in the upcoming series against New Zealand and regain his form as a top-performing batter for the Indian team.