'Was he ready for the captaincy?' - Shoaib Akhtar questions Rohit Sharma's approach after India's humiliating ouster

Pakistan pace icon Shoaib Akhtar has said that Rohit Sharma was just not prepared to take up the captaincy role after India suffered a humiliating ten-wicket defeat at the hands of England in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 semifinals at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday, November 10.

At the same time, the ‘Rawalpindi Express’ has also gone on to add that he would be surprised if Rohit continues to lead India from here on.

We all knew that Rohit Sharma wanted to be the skipper: Shoaib Akhtar

“Was he ready for the captaincy? I still haven't received an answer to this question. We all knew that he wanted to be the skipper. But this is not an easy task to do. You have to live and breathe captaincy and also have to sacrifice family life. That is why Rohit should be spending more time with the team which will help him in building the team as well. He just looked a bit depressed and off,” said Akhtar while speaking on Zee News.

“With captaincy comes responsibility. If the team performs, you get the credit but when you face criticism, you don't point fingers at anyone. And Rohit Sharma's continuation, I won't be able to see that. Because he is close to his retirement in T20 format.

Kohli took so much of time just to realise that captaincy is now gone and that he needs to come of that phase. Yet he took breaks from the game and then somehow, luckily, Pakistan were troubled by Kohli. Now he is in a good space. I think for Rohit Sharma, it has been too much to ask from him,” he added.

Apart from his poor captaincy,  Rohit Sharma also showcased disappointing batting performances throughout the tournament. Even the solitary half-century that he managed against the Netherlands came after he was given a life initially. He scored 27 runs off 28 deliveries in the semis and stuck to a defensive approach in the powerplay overs.

It now remains to be seen what call will be taken by the national selectors as far as India’s future T20I squad is concerned.