'Rohit Sharma may deny it but…': Ex-BCCI selector addresses India's 'headache'

The Indian cricket team capped off their road to the T20 World Cup by winning back-to-back T20I series at home against Australia and South Africa winning both by a 2-1 margin. On Tuesday, India played their final T20 international before they begin their World Cup campaign against Pakistan on October 23, and even though it didn't quite turn out the way they would have liked - losing by 49 runs - plenty of positives were gained from the six T20Is. Suryakumar Yadav's brilliance with the bat, and KL Rahul and Virat Kohli's return to form were the biggest takeaways for the Indian team. However, the only concern at this moment for Rohit Sharma and Co. is the bowling. Once a dominant force in world cricket, India's bowling has been taken to the cleaners by the opposition's batters. This trend started with the Asia Cup and unfortunately for India, remains in tact until the third T20I against South Africa in Indore. In the second T20I at Guwahati, India almost lost the game despite putting up 237 on the board, while in the dead rubber on Tuesday, conceded another 227. This, in addition to Australia hammering them to chase down 208 in Mohali last week. India's bowling currently appears fragile and without their premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah, things will only get tougher for India in Australia. Rohit has time and again spoken about India's bowling, especially the death overs, and while he has acknowledged that it is an area that needs improvement, the India captain hasn't really been too vocal about it. Ahead of the T20 World Cup, reacting to it, former BCCI selector Saba Karim reckons that no matter how much Rohit tries to brush the topic under the carpet, deep down he is aware that this is one big concern for the Indian team. "However much he (Rohit Sharma) tries to deny it and try to give confidence to the bowlers, our death bowling is a big issue. I think it is posing a lot of headaches to the team management and to Rohit Sharma. It seems like whenever we try and figure out one problem or we try and plug one hole, there are several others that come up. We were doing pretty well in terms of trying to pick wickets in the powerplay, we have been able to stop that and suddenly we have this issue of leaking far too many runs in the death overs. So, they need to work this out as soon as possible," Karim said on SPORTS18's show 'SPORTS OVER THE TOP'. Having said that, Karim also weighed in on one of India's biggest assets at the moment – Suryakumar Yadav. The No. 4 middle-order batter has been in the form of his life, having scored a hat-trick of half-centuries, to go with a string of stunning knocks he has played over the last couple of months. In England, Suryakumar dazzled with a century and although the Asia Cup was a bit of a dampener, he roared back to form with 69 against Australia, 50 not out against South Africa in Thiruvananthapuram and another 61 off 22 balls in Guwahati in a maddening display of strokeplay. Heading into the World Cup, Karim reckons India's chances of winning the cup will depend heavily on SKY, despite the star presence of Kohli, Rahul and captain Rohit. "Well one thing I can say is – India's chances of winning the World Cup depend largely on Suryakumar Yadav’s form and I say this because he plays in such a difficult position. In the middle overs, in the T20 format to play with such a high strike rate is not so easy but it comes so easy for Suryakumar Yadav because of his skill, experience and he's so dexterous. He's got an uncanny ability to find the gaps in the right areas, at times he toys with the bowling and there are several vacant areas which he is able to exploit so easily. So yes Suryakumar Yadav, I hope and pray that he does well and continues with this form even in the World Cup," he pointed out. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON

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