West Indies’ legendary cricketer Sir Andy Roberts has slammed the Indian cricket team after their humiliating defeat at the World Test Championship Final 2023. The Rohit Sharma squad lost their second consecutive World Test Championship, after having lost it to New Zealand in the World Test Championship Final 2021. Robers felt that arrogance has crept into the minds of the Indian cricket team, and they have underestimated the rest of the world.
In an interview with Midday, he said, “There is this arrogance which has crept into Indian cricket and through this, India have underestimated the rest of the world. India must decide what their focus is: Test cricket or limited overs cricket. T20 cricket will run its course. There is no contest between bat and ball there.”
Talking about India’s batting in the WTC Final, the former fast bowler said that he didn’t see any bright spots in the department. He said, “I expected India to show their batting strength. I saw no bright spot in the final although Ajinkya Rahane fought hard; got hit on his hand. Shubman Gill looks good when he plays those shots, but he stands on leg stump and is often dismissed, bowled or caught behind."
"He has good hands, but he must get behind the ball. Virat Kohli, though, got a brute of a delivery from Mitchell Starc in the first innings. India have some very good players, mind you, but they have not performed creditably away from home.”
Not only this, but the West Indies star also said that he was shocked by the ‘ridiculous’ and ‘unbelievable’ decision of benching spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Roberts said, “Dropping Ashwin was ridiculous. How can you not pick your best spinner? Unbelievable, the think-tank’s decision to pick four quick bowlers appeared fine to him except the fact that not one of those four is very tall. “That would have made a difference in terms of bounce.”
Notably, the Indian side went down to the Kangaroos by a whopping 209 runs. They are set to take on West Indies in their next tour featuring two Tests, three ODIs and a T20I series of five matches.