Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has touted that a few of the senior Indian players might call their international retirements after the Men in Blue were knocked out of the Men's T20 World Cup by England on Thursday, 10 November. India succumbed to a numbing 10-wicket defeat at Adelaide after a disappointing performance with both bat and ball.
Defending 169 runs against a hardy England batting line-up, Rohit Sharma and his men failed to keep their openers - Jos Buttler and Alex Hales - at bay, and the duo combined to score 170 runs in just 16 overs. Speaking after the game, Gavaskar said that he expects many changes to India's future line-up and added that Hardik Pandya should take over as skipper after the World Cup.
"Having won the Indian Premier League on his first assignment as the captain, they would have marked Hardik Pandya out as the next captain. Hardik Pandya will definitely take over the team in the future and there will be some retirements, you never know. Players will be giving it a lot of thought. There are several players in their mid-30s who will be reconsidering their position in the Indian T20I team," Gavaskar said.
India failed to fire in the powerplay over in the first innings but ended up scoring 169 runs after a strong partnership between Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya in the middle overs. With a formidable total to defend, the England batters started strong and were at their best through, lifting the ball over the infield to gather fast runs. This helped the Three Lions to 63 runs in the powerplay, essentially taking India out of the game in the first six over itself.
Many of India's star batters like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav faltered, while the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami were below-par with the ball as well. India opted to play Rishabh Pant in place of Dinesh Karthik in the semis but that move did not work either.
After their win over India England will now go to play the finals against Pakistan on Sunday, November 13, at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
