'Don't agree that we played conservative cricket' - Rohit Sharma on India's 2021 T20 WC performance

Ahead of the upcoming five-match T20I series against West Indies, skipper Rohit Sharma denied that India played in a conservative brand of cricket in the T20 World Cup last year. India failed to progress into the knockout stages after two successive defeats, and there was a lot of criticism they had to face, especially the batters.

However, under the leadership of Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid, India haven’t lost a T20I series up to the recent England series and have also opted to take be more aggressive while batting. Despite losing an odd game, the approach has been quite effective for India.

Rohit explained that India hadn’t played bad or conservative cricket in the 2021 T20 World Cup and denied that India did not take any chances. He noted the successful run for India before the World Cup and questioned if a conservative approach would produce results of that kind.

Not getting the result in World Cup does not mean we played bad: Rohit Sharma

“We haven’t gotten the result in the World Cup; that does not mean we were playing bad cricket. And I do not agree that we were playing conservative cricket. If you lose 1-2 matches in the World Cup, it seems like we did not take the chances. If you look at the games we have played before the World Cup; we won 80 percent of those. I do not understand how can you win these many matches if you are conservative,” Rohit said.

“We lost the World Cup, but it can happen. That does not happen we were not playing freely. Lately, it is not like we have completely changed something, we have just given players the freedom to express themselves. If you play freely, performances will come out,” he added.

Rohit also said that it is important to understand that the team has been trying something different, and therefore mistakes are bound to happen.

“The people on the outside should maintain peace, the way we are playing cricket, there will be failures, and the results might not go our way, but it is okay as we are trying something. It can happen that mistakes take place, but that does not mean that the players are bad. With time, everyone has to change, we are changing, so people on the outside also need to change,” he said.