Former India cricketer Rohan Gavaskar slammed the Indian team for a below-par effort in their Asia Cup 2025 game against Oman on Friday, September 19. However, India won by 21 runs, but did not dominate as one would have expected as well. They posted 188/8 on the board after batting first. Abhishek scored 38 runs off 15 balls while Sanju Samson scored 56 runs off 45 balls. And, India managed to pick only four wickets as Oman ended on 167/4 as well.

“When you are a bench player and not a certainty in the XI, and you come up against a team like Oman, you have got to be picking up wickets. Don’t care what the others are doing and play for more matches. If you don’t look threatening or wicket-taking, then that is a problem. You can play in second gear. We have played this game in second gear,” he said on Cricbuzz.

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“Tilak Varma bowled, Abhishek Sharma bowled, so it showed that they didn’t take the game seriously. The batting order was such that Suryakumar did not bat. They have not taken the game seriously but the bowling also did not. But the main bowlers will be thinking these Oman batters were 20 short of what would have been a historical victory for them,” he further added.

Rohan Gavaskar also opined that the Indian coaching staff appeared disappointed after the win over Oman in the Asia Cup 2025 match as well. It was not a satisfying win for India as well.

“What happens in a game like this is, when the camera was panning towards the dugout, the expressions and the body language of the coaching staff, they looked a bit disappointed. They weren’t happy, cheery faces even though they were experimenting. The Indian coaching staff looked disappointed. In a sense, maybe because India has played this game in second gear, we won this game as we should, but it has raised more questions than given you answers,” Rohan Gavaskar concluded.