Cricket News

Sir Andy Roberts issues chilling statement after India’s World Test Championship final loss to Australia

India did not have a good time at the World Test Championship final at the Oval In England. The Men in Blue succumbed to the might of the Australian’s and suffered a heavy 209 run defeat. After India’s poor showing, there was a lot of hue and cry over India’s lacklusture performance both at home and overseas. The legendary Sir Andy Roberts has also criticized the Indian side in a strongly worded message to them.

“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,” Roberts said in an interview to mid-day on Thursday. The senior players from India had meagre returns with the bat. Specially the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara.

Indian players have not performed credibly away from home – Sir Andy Roberts

Australia’s all-round strength notwithstanding, he expected a better show from Rohit Sharma’s team.

“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,” Roberts added.

The likes of Sunil Gavaskar lambasted the Indian management over Ravichandran Ashwin’s omission and Robets echoed the same sentiments.

“Dropping Ashwin was ridiculous. How can you not pick your best spinner? Unbelievable.”), the think-tank’s decision to pick four quick bowlers (Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur) 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,” Roberts stated.

“I harboured no such hopes. I knew they would collapse. The batting in both innings was bad,” He added when he was asked whether he felt India would chase down the mammoth score of 444 in the second innings. On the West Indies tour he said that the games are going to be rain affected. But he refused to talk about how the series would end up.