Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag slammed Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav for their tame dismissals against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Saturday. While Rohit could only manage 19 off 24 balls in the run-chase of 158, SKY was dismissed after scoring 11 runs off 14 balls. 

Rohit was dismissed by Varun Chakravarthy as he was caught at short fine-leg while trying to play a sweep shot. On the other hand, Yadav was dismissed on a slower wide-ball by Andre Russell as he was caught by Ramandeep Singh at the deep square-leg boundary.

Both SKY and Rohit are big players and Sehwag said that they should have respected the good balls in the run-chase.

“You could be Rohit Sharma or Suryakumar Yadav, but at least respect the delivery if you can’t respect the bowler. The ball on which Rohit Sharma got out wasn’t a weak ball. No doubt Rohit and Suryakumar are great players, but that doesn’t mean you should hit the good deliveries, too,” said Sehwag on Cricbuzz.

He added, “Whoever bowls good, just play him out. If two wickets hadn’t fallen, Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav could’ve finished the match an over before. Vaibhav Arora, Mitchell Starc, Andre Russell and Harshit Rana had to bowl anyway; if they played out the spinners and didn’t lose the wickets, they would’ve won the game.”

Sehwag, who was known to hit the ground running during his heydays, said that one can not afford to have ego while batting.

“You can’t have an ego when you come out to bat. You play them out or punish the loose deliveries. Naman Dhir came right at the end and smashed two sixes and a four; if Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav were set at that time, they would’ve hit five balls for boundaries,” Sehwag said.

Mumbai Indians will take on Lucknow Super Giants in their last league stage match of the season at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Friday.