'They're playing in an old fashioned way' - Former England skipper gives a big statement on Rohit-Rahul duo ahead of semi-final against England

Indian team is waiting to end their title drought in any marquee international tournament since they won last time in the 2013 Champions Trophy under the captaincy of former legendary wicketkeeper-batter MS Dhoni. Currently, the Indian team is playing under the leadership of the 35-year-old senior batter Rohit Sharma.

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Although the skipper, Sharma himself has struggled so far with the bat in this tournament so far. He could score only 39 runs in the five super-12 matches played ahead of going to play the semi-finals against Jos Buttler’s England. Talking about his poor string of runs, The Mumbai batter has low individual scores like 4, 15, 2, and against Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe respectively except for a half-century against the lower-ranked Netherlands in India’s second super-12 match.

Meanwhile, former England skipper and current commentator, Naseer Hussain have come up with his analyses on the batting style of the Indian opening pair of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. The 54-year-old went on to call Rohit-Rahul’s batting style a bit of an ‘old-fashioned’ way.

You have to say they have underperformed in world tournaments - Naseer Hussain

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"You have to say they have underperformed in world tournaments. At times they have played some timid cricket with the bat for the players they have and when working for Sky last summer their former coach Ravi Shastri said that is something they have to change," wrote the veteran of 96 Tests in his column for Daily.

"Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul do play in a slightly old-fashioned way in the first few overs but that has suited India in this tournament because the ball has moved around at the start. India needs to be more dynamic if they are going to win World Cups and that is where Suryakumar Yadav — or SKY as he is known — has been so important,” he added later.

Later on, Hussain was in all praise of World number-one T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav.  Notably, the 32-year-old has scored 225 runs so far in five super-12 games he played so far for India in the tournament.

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"India's dynamism will come at three and four where Virat Kohli is still the master and now has a considerable apprentice in SKY. I don't think I have ever seen a better white-ball inning than the one Kohli played against Pakistan in the group stage at Melbourne. The way he paced his innings as well as some of the shots he played at the end — like hitting Haris Rauf straight back over his head for six — was remarkable. Any professional cricketer watching that on TV would have sat up and just said ‘wow!'” wrote Hussain further in his column.