MI’s head coach Jayawardene gives thumbs down to demotion of Rohit against Kiwis

Former Sri Lanka skipper and Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene has questioned the experiment Team India made against New Zealand in the ICC T20 World Cup. Instead of Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan opened the innings with KL Rahul. The move backfired as Ishan scored just 4 runs.

Rohit Sharma, who was demoted to first down, accumulated 14 runs off 14 balls, which impacted India’s run flow in the most important game of the global event. Former cricketers have slammed the Indian management for their call. Jayawardene was surprised to see the lack of clarity in India’s second match of the campaign.

“…the skills in that dressing room are immense and I feel that role clarity and how you want to construct is something which is lacking. Form as well coming into this tournament and how they are going to set themselves up because India, as a team, hasn’t played T20 cricket for a little while and that showed,” he said on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time Out show.

“They had couple of warm-up games, they looked good but kept changing personnel at the top of the order and when they came into the actual tournament it was a bit tough. India is always going to dominate with the bat in the competition but as soon as the batting lets them down…

“When you compare with all other bowling attacks you feel that India is not upto scratch. They have some attacking bowlers but its their batting that they have depended on dominating and when that is not happening that’s a concern,” he said.

Asked what he meant by clarity, Jayawardene explained, “For me, the clarity is who are your best opening options, how you are going to get that explosive start and who is going to bat through and then you can have a floater in that little period. How do you use that floater and who is going to keep the tempo up.”