Aakash Chopra criticises Indian team management for not taking the No. 4 slot seriously

Aakash Chopra criticised the Indian team management for not taking the number four slot seriously which eventually cost them the 2019 World Cup.  As many as 14 candidates were auditioned for that prized batting slot which included the likes of  Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, etc. but neither of them could consolidate that spot by World Cup 2019. 

During the quadrennial event, KL Rahul who was the number four batsman had to open the innings along with Rohit Sharma after a thumb injury had ended Shikhar Dhawan's tournament and when all-rounder Vijay Shankar was ruled out due to a thumb injury, an inexperienced Rishabh Pant was asked to bat at number four.

'This is ridiculous': Aakash Chopra

“This is ridiculous. You played more than a dozen players at No.4 and none of them have played more than 16 matches at that position. I mean you have auditioned 14 players and not even given 20 innings to even one of them. We are talking about a period of 5 years here”, said Chopra while interacting on his Youtube channel.

“We have been consistently making changes and because of this only when the 2019 World Cup came, we were still searching for the No.4 batsman. You didn’t take Rayudu, kept Vijay Shankar at the beginning, then you thought about KL Rahul and then you went to Rishabh Pant, you were absolutely clueless. It was a problem of our own making, we didn’t do a good job,”  the cricketer-turned-commentator/analyst added.

Team India were one of the strong contenders to lift the coveted trophy in England & Wales and they had topped the league by winning seven out of their nine matches.

Coming back to that semi-final match that was played at the Old  Trafford in Manchester, the Indian bowlers had done a tremendous job in restricting New  Zealand to 239. However, 45 minutes of bad cricket where they had lost all their frontline batsmen while chasing a modest total of 240 with hardly anything on the board in the semi-final against New Zealand meant that they had to wait for another four years to win their third 50-overs World Cup trophy. 

Even though MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja had restored the Indian hopes with a 116-run seventh-wicket stand after the Men In Blue were down and out at 92/6, they failed to match up with the steep asking rate and were dismissed in quick successions as India could not make an appearance in what would have been their fourth World Cup final. They were bundled out for 221 as the Kiwis qualified for their second consecutive World Cup final.

READ: Ex-England Skipper Opines Virat Kohli Can Never Be 'Captain Cool' Like Dhoni, Explains Why

(Image Courtesy: AP)