“He’s a defensive captain, he’s a negative captain” – Sunil Gavaskar slams Rohit Sharma on Day 1 of 2024 IND vs NZ 2nd Test

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar was not impressed with Rohit Sharma’s captaincy on the opening day of the second Test match against New Zealand at Pune. Gavaskar recalled that how a captain would be called defensive and negative in earlier times if he had a long-on and long-off in place at the start of a Test match.

Rohit adopted a sedate approach in the opening session as he had the deep fielders in place for Ravichandran Ashwin, Washington Sundar, and Ravindra Jadeja.

There were too many easy singles on offer, which made it easy for Devon Conway, Will Young, and Rachin Ravindra to rotate strike at regular intervals.

Sunil Gavaskar said on commentary, “If you had fielders like that – long-on and long-off – for the spinners before a lofted shot had been played, the captain would’ve been called a defensive captain. He’s a defensive captain, he’s a negative captain. Here now you try and block the boundaries.”

“(Once the field changed) This is a good field in the sense that there is a fielder at long-on for – with the turn. The mid-off is inside, which is how it should be,” he added.

On the other hand, former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri also noted that Rohit Sharma set a defensive field, which allowed the New Zealand batters to make easy runs. In fact, Rachin Ravindra played an aggressive shot against Ravindra Jadeja in the 49th over after stepping down the track and thus Sharma’s tactics before that were hard to understand.

Shastri said on air, “Too defensive in that first session of play when the ball was gripping. When you have long-on and long-off, I mean just playing it into the hands of the New Zealand batters.”

At tea, New Zealand were 201-5 after winning the toss.