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‘Rohit Sharma is nearly 37 and past his best’: Geoffrey Boycott takes a dig at Indian skipper and says it is a ‘golden chance’ for England to win series | Cricket News

Since becoming the opener of the Test side Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has been a prolific run scorer for the side. In the last few years, he has been consent and has given India a good start at the top. However, he had not much of an impact in the first Test in Hyderabad which the hosts lost 28 runs against England.
Former England player Geoffrey Boycott was critical of Rohit. “Their captain Rohit Sharma is nearly 37 and past his best. He makes pretty cameos but has scored only two Test hundreds at home in four years,” he wrote in his column for The Telegraph. The Indian opener made 545 runs from eight matches in 2023 at an average of 41.92 with a ton against Australia in Nagpur.
Rohit also has had a poor series against South Africa recently. In two matches in the series, on spicy pitches, the batter could only manage 60 runs at an average of 20.
Golden chance for England
With Virat Kohli not returning till the third Test citing personal reasons and after the first Test both KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja injured for the second Test in Visakhapatnam Boycott reckons that this is a golden chance for England to win a series in India after 12 years.
“This India team are ripe for the taking and England has a golden chance to be the first side to topple them on their own patch for 12 years. India badly miss Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja has a hamstring injury and will not play the second Test,” Boycott would say.
England were the last team to beat India in 2012.
The former English batter also criticised the Indian fielding efforts in the first Test. They (India) are also weak in the field. They dropped Ollie Pope on 110 and that cost them 86 runs. It lost them in the match.
England did manage to beat India in the first Test in Chennai in the last series they played in India in 2021. However, the hosts made a resounding comeback in the series later to win 3-1.

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