Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team defeated Jos Butler's England by 4 wickets in the first ODI of the three-match series which was being played at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur, on February 6 (Thursday). However, despite India's quite easy win the India captain was at the receiving end of criticism for his continuous poor performance with bat across formats. After the match, head coach Gautam Gambhir was also spotted having an intense chat with him.
Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma's chat
What caught many eyes was a relatively serious chat between the Indian captain and head coach despite a good win. The expressions on both Rohit and Gambhir's faces were really serious which made everyone curious and talk all over the social media. What the conversation was about is totally not clear but it has definitely buzzed the internet.
As a result of his subpar performance in the first ODI, the Indian skipper was mercilessly trolled across social media. In just five of the previous sixteen innings, Rohit has scored ten or more runs, with just one of those innings reaching a fifty. This made the fans wonder if the chat was about his form.
Rohit on win in 1st ODI
The Indian captain expressed happiness after picking up an ODI win as they were playing this format after a long time. He also talked about promoting Axar over KL Rahul in the batting order.
"Pretty happy. We all knew we are playing this format after a long time. I thought right from the beginning we played as per expectation. They did start well but the way we came back was superb. We wanted a leftie in the middle. It is as simple as that. We know they will spin it back into the left-handers so we wanted a leftie. Gill and Axar batted brilliantly out in the middle. Nothing specific. Overall as a team I just want us as a team to keep doing the right things as much as possible," said Rohit Sharma in the post-match presentation.
In the first ODI against England, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was removed for just two runs, demonstrating that the format change had little effect on his luck. Saqib Mahmood dismissed him after Rohit attempted a flip shot and got a leading edge as the ball sailed up in the air for the fielder at mid-on to make an easy catch.
India bowled out England on 248 runs with Harshit Rana and Ravindra Jadeja taking three wickets each. Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell smashed crucial fifties to help their team reach a respectable total. India lost their openers quickly in a 249-run chase. However, Gill and Iyer steadied the ship by smashing fifties. Later Axar also smashed a half-century. However, Gill missed the chance to score a century as he got out on 87 runs.
