T20 World Cup 2022: "Opening is not working" - Aakash Chopra on where India went wrong against South Africa
Aakash Chopra has highlighted that the lack of runs from India's openers was one of the contributing factors to their loss in their T20 World Cup 2022 clash against South Africa.
The Men in Blue suffered a five-wicket defeat against the Proteas in a Group 2 Super 12 game in Perth on Sunday, October 30. They will have to win their remaining two group matches against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to assure themselves of a berth in the semi-finals.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra picked KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma's failures as one of India's stumbling blocks. He said:
"Opening is not working. The opening partnership has probably not contributed a total of 50 runs in the three matches, one of which was against the Netherlands. So that is a major concern."
Chopra was particularly disappointed with Rahul's form. The former India opener elaborated:
"We went with the belief that our No. 1, 2 and 3 are the best in the world. The No. 3 (Virat Kohli) is playing like the best. The No. 1 (Rohit Sharma) also scored a fifty, that too was not a very confident knock but the No. 2 (KL Rahul), his bat has not struck the ball properly till now. So our opening form is a very big concern."
Please drop KL Rahul and give another deserving player a chance.
Rahul has managed a total of 22 runs in his three knocks in the T20 World Cup thus far. More than the lack of runs from his willow, the Karnataka batter has looked tentative at the crease and seems to be down on confidence.
"If you want to play seven batters, you could have played Yuzi Chahal" - Aakash Chopra
Chopra questioned whether Yuzvendra Chahal could have played ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin, considering India played an extra batter in the form of Deepak Hooda. He explained:
"Second, I am going to talk about the strategy. If you want to play seven batters, you could have played Yuzi Chahal. Ashwin has picked up just one wicket in four matches he has played against South Africa, three in India and one here. You probably don't need Ashwin's batting if you have played seven batters."
Chopra picked India's fielding as another area of concern. The renowned commentator stated:
"Fielding and catching, that's my last thing. In 2022, if six catches come to us, we catch four and drop two. Here also we dropped a catch. We miss run-outs, your run-saving standards are extremely low. These three things are pulling us down."
Aiden Markram, who stitched together a match-winning 76-run partnership with David Miller, led a charmed life in the middle. He was dropped by Virat Kohli at deep mid-wicket off Ashwin's bowling, with Rohit Sharma also missing a couple of run-out chances.