The debate over Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s ODI future remains in the headlines, but former Indian batsman Mohammad Kaif believes that everyone is looking at the wrong issue.
Following India’s T20I and ODI series defeats against England, Kaif has urged the national selectors and team management to stop worrying about the international future of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and fix the real weakness ahead of the 2027 ICC ODI World Cup.
Cricket pundits have boldly said that the Indian team cannot think of winning another World Cup unless the bowling attack improves. He also believes that the team also needs to address fielding and fitness issues and stop making batting issues the main reason for recent defeats. Recently, after Rohit Sharma’s brilliant Lord’s century, Saba Karim has sent a big message.
Mohammad Kaif says Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are not India’s real problem
After India’s consecutive T20 series and ODI series defeats, Mohammad Kaif said that too much attention is being given to Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli while the bowlers are continuously struggling. He said that the bowlers failed to put pressure on the opposition team and perform well.
Kaif also highlighted India’s recent tour of Ireland, where the home team scored 180 runs in the first T20I, its highest ever score at that venue. He then pointed to England’s mammoth score of 387 runs in the final ODI at Lord’s, which became the second highest ODI score at the famous ground.
Gill and Gambhir are focusing on the wrong problem
Mohammad Kaif: Team India’s biggest concern is not Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli, but the bowling attack. He said that India has given away a lot of runs in the entire tour and the batsmen cannot be depended on every time.
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“We are talking about Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. But the real problem of our Indian team is the bowling. We are targeting Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and avoiding focusing on the real issues. In fact, if we look at this tour, our bowling was very poor,” Mohammad Kaif said on Cricbuzz.
Mohammad Kaif issues warning over India’s struggling bowling attack in World Cup
Kaif stressed that India cannot rely only on its batting line-up but the bowlers also need to be able to defend low scores and keep the team in the contest. He said that if this does not happen then India cannot win the upcoming World Cup and big teams will also keep troubling them.
The former Indian batsman said, “So I see that we have to work a lot on bowling. We are focusing on the wrong things. If we want to win the World Cup, we have to work on bowling. Do we have a bowling attack that can defend 250 runs?”
There will be some games when our batsmen fail. So, the question is, will this bowling attack complement it? Can you defend a low scoring game? You can’t put everything on the batsmen.” Earlier, Kris Srikkanth gave an honest verdict on Gautam Gambhir after the England series defeat.
Mohammad Kaif raised questions on India’s increasing injury problem, poor bowling and fielding.
Kaif feels that the team management should spend less time discussing the future of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and focus more on improving the bowling department. He also urged the team management to work on improving fielding and fitness standards. The commentator also questioned why India has been suffering so many injuries recently.
He said, “I think after this tour, in which they have won only one match, Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir should focus on bowling and not on Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and batting. We should focus on fielding and fitness. Who will take the responsibility of injuries? So apart from Rohit, there are other key things that we should focus on and improve.”
