Monty Panesar criticises ‘clueless captain’ Rohit Sharma after Hyderabad loss

Monty Panesar and Rohit Sharma. (Photo Source: X(Twitter)

India lost the first Test of the ongoing five-match series against England. Both sides faced off at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad and coming back after a huge deficit, the Ben Stokes-led England pulled off a miracle win to gain an advantage in the series.

Speaking of the clash, former England cricketer Monty Panesar came forward to speak about Rohit Sharma’s leadership in the first Test. Rohit failed to go big with the bat and with his tactics, and Panesar opined that Rohit seemed clueless in the clash.

“A very big victory for England. Nobody even imagined that this was possible, everyone thought England would lose after a 190 deficit but Ollie Pope played a brilliant innings, one of the best we’ve seen for a long time,” Monty Panesar was quoted as saying by Metro.co.uk.

“And Rohit Sharma, he was clueless. Absolutely clueless captain. Not proactive, not changing the field set or anything like that. With Ravindra Jadeja and Ollie Pope playing the scoop. Just take slip out and put in a fly slip or something, change the field,” he added. 

Change your field set and be attacking: Panesar

Furthermore, Panesar opined that the Indian team should have looked to change their field settings and be attacking if England were looking to play different shots. 

“If they’re playing all these different shots, change your field set and be attacking. Very defensive field set… he needs to bring that fielder which is at deep point, bring him on the catch when they reverse sweep, so they get it slightly wrong,” Panesar said.

He also opined that Kohli’s aggressive character was heavily missed in Hyderabad, and if he had been present, the situation would have been different for India. 

“If Virat Kohli was playing he would be in the faces of these England players, he would tell them: “Come on, do it again and let’s see how good you are!” This is an England team that are not scared of losing. They don’t care if they lose the next four games, they will still play with no fear of failure,” he added.