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Star Australia batter Travis Head struggled, but relished pace on the delivery after settling, taking Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya to the cleaners.
‘What’s The Point Of…’: Harbhajan Slams Rohit Sharma’s Captaincy In Semifinal (Picture credit: AP)
Former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh has questioned Rohit Sharma on the late introduction of Varun Chakravarthy into the attack when Travis Head had already begun taking Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya to the cleaners.
Chakravarthy retained his place in the playing XI against Australia after his heroics in the group stage game against New Zealand and was considered an important match-up against Head.
Harbhajan wasn’t pleased with Rohit’s tactics and said that Chakravarthy should have bowled with the new ball to counter Head.
“When you have Varun Chakarvarthy, why would you wait for nine overs to bring him on against Travis Head? What’s the point of having him, then? The Indian team should have started with him at one end and Shami at the other,” Harbhajan said while speaking on Star Sports.
“He (Head) got set, and then Varun was brought on. Those 49 runs could prove to be the difference,” Harbhajan added during the mid-innings show.
The Indian win ensures that the final of the Champions Trophy will now be held in Dubai instead of Lahore, the original host of the marquee clash, as Rohit’s men will not travel there due to security reasons.
Ace India batter Virat Kohli had brilliant support from Shreyas Iyer with whom he built a match-winning 91-run partnership for the third wicket and steadied the ship after the early wickets of Rohit and Shubman Gill.
Throughout his stay, Australia skipper Steve Smith was the pillar of the Aussie innings and was involved in three 50-plus partnerships, 50 with Head for the second wicket, 56 for the third wicket with Marnus Labuschagne and 54 for the fifth wicket with Alex Carey.
Only some batters have a higher fortune quotient than Head, and his cameo of 39 had multiple slices of luck, a dropped catch by Shami off his bowling in the first legal ball of the game, a near run-out and two inside edges that missed the stumps marginally.
But Chakravarthy mitigated Head’s threat when the latter skied him to a running-in Gill in the deep.
Head has been a feared character against India, having scored match-winning centuries in the 2023 ODI World Cup final and World Test Championship final, as well as crucial knocks in the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
For more in-depth coverage of the Champions Trophy, check out the latest Points Table to see where your favorite team stands. Stay updated on the tournament’s top performers with the Most Runs and Most Wickets leaderboards. Keep following for all the latest updates!
