Shoaib Akhtar Asks Rohit Sharma To Learn From MS Dhoni, Doubts India Will Win ODI World Cup

Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar feels India will play ODI World Cup with the pressure to end the ICC trophy drought and captain Rohit Sharma may not be the right man to lead them.

Rohit Sharma and Shoaib Akhtar. (Source: Twitter)

The coming three to four months have non-stop cricket action. Cricket fans are going to be glued to ther TV sets or digital devices as Asia Cup 2023, Asian Games cricket and ICC Men's ODI World Cup 2023 is going to be played in months of September, October and November. India can win as many a three trophies/medals in these tournaments. But it is not going to be too easy. The only silverware India definitely want is the ICC Men's World Cup trophy, which they have not won since 2011. In fact, India are yet to win a ICC trophy since the MS Dhoni-led team clinched the Champions Trophy in 2013.

Onus will be on India captain Rohit Sharma to deliver the goods. If former Pakistan captain Shoaib Akhtar is to be believed, India are going to be under massive pressure to win the cup. "First of all, it is the pressure that you all put on the team. It is almost impossible to play with such pressure. Like I told you, it is as if you can't lose. If you, God forbid, lose, all hell will break loose," Akhtar was speaking on Backstage with Boria.

The Rawalpindi Express added that India do not have someone like MS Dhoni to deal with this enormous pressure. Akhtar feels that Rohit Sharma does not have it in him to handle the pressure and that he sets panic button at times durign the tough moments in the match. "When I see Rohit, I keep asking this question of myself if he should have accepted captaincy in the first place? I think Rohit feels the panic on occasions and lets pressure get to him. The pressure of captaincy cripples you, and it happened with Virat Kohli also. That's why you don't win a major tournament," Akhtar said.

Rohit Sharma has admitted that India's ODI team have concerns at the No.4 batting position.

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— ICC (@ICC) August 11, 2023

After his harsh assessment of captain Rohit, Akhtar called him a better batter than Virat Kohli. However, he continued to have his doubts on India clinching the World Cup title under Rohit's captaincy. "Make no mistake, Rohit does have the team to win the World Cup. As a batter, he is perhaps more talented than Virat Kohli also. He is a classical batsman and the kind of shots he plays, it is just mind-blowing. But with captaincy, is he being able to do that? Let him prove me wrong and all of us wrong, for that's what all of India will want him to do in this World Cup," he further stressed.

India begin their Asia Cup 2023 campaign against Pakistan on September 2 at Kandy. They are likely to play them again in the Super 4 stage followed by the final. The last 2 meetings are subject to their qualification. India and Pakistan play each other again in a cricket match, at the World Cup, on October 14 at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, which is expected to be a cracker of a game.