Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar has backed the Rohit Sharma-led cricket team after their unceremonious exit from the T20 World Cup after a 10-wicket defeat to England. The 2011 ODI World Cup winner said in an interview with ANI, “To get to that Number 1 spot, it does not happen overnight. The team has to play good cricket over a period of time and it has done that. Let us not judge our team on the basis of this performance.”

Tendulkar, however, has admitted that 168 was not a decent total in Adelaide, since it has shorter boundaries and “the dimensions of the ground are entirely different”. “We were also unsuccessful in taking wickets. It was a tough game for us, a bad and disappointing defeat”, the batter with a hundred international centuries added.

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The Indian cricket team was hit was a barrage of criticism after they succumbed under the superb knocks by Alex Hales and Jos Buttler. 

The lack of form of India’s captain Rohit Sharma and vice captain KL Rahul continued in the match. While Sharma managed to put up 27 runs on the board, Rahul scored 5. Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya once again rescued India, scoring 50 and 63 each.

While Tendulkar has backed the Indian side, another batting great, Sunil Gavaskar, lashed out at the team and questioned their commitment by saying that the Indian cricket team members do not suffer from fatigue when they play in the IPL. 

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Tendulkar has taken a more empathetic approach: “Let us not judge our team on the basis of this performance. Players also did not want to go out and fail. In sports, these ups and downs are there. We have to be in it together”.

Tendulkar himself had played in five different ODI World Cups before winning one in 2011. He came close in 2003 when India lost the final to Australia.