Rohit had given warning to Virat-KL in 2021, gave an even bigger challenge in the World Cup!
India defeated Australia (IndvsAus) by 6 wickets. This was the first match of both the teams in the ODI World Cup 2023. KL Rahul was adjudged player of the match for his brilliant innings of 97 runs at Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The way India’s innings faltered, some fans even started thinking about defeat. And some dug up and made a headline of 2021 viral. This headline is related to Captain Rohit Sharma only.
In 2021, India played a series against New Zealand. After that Rohit Sharma said during an interview,
I will take care that we remain prepared for such situations. We have to be prepared for such situations in which the team comes to 10/3. This will be my message to those batting in the middle order, i.e. at number 3, 4, 5, 6. It is not written anywhere that if you lose 2 or 3 wickets at 10, you cannot score 180 or 190 runs (Rohit was talking after a T20 match).
ESPNCricinfo had made a headline from this interview,
Rohit Sharma: I want middle order to prepare for ’10 for 3′ situations
That is, Rohit said, I want the middle order to prepare for situations like 10/3.
Well, some fans found the heading of this article and made it viral. It is right too. The team’s preparedness was visible due to the warning given by the captain about two years ago. KL Rahul and Virat played brilliant innings and won the match for India. What Rohit had said about Virat was also right.
match brief report
Team India, which had set out to chase the target of 200, had reached 3 wickets for 2 runs. All three players were out on duck. Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer. Sharma got a good delivery, the other two were out after playing bad shots. KL supported Virat. Both of them batted brilliantly. Virat scored 85 runs. Whereas KL Rahul returned unbeaten on 97 runs. If the partnership between Virat and Rahul did not work out, anything could have happened in the match.
Talking about Australian innings, their opener Mitchell Marsh was also out on a duck. Ravindra Jadeja proved to be the most effective bowler for India. Jaddu dismissed Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey. Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav restricted Australia to 199 by taking 2 wickets each. After this, Virat-KL made India’s day by batting brilliantly.
