India had two 10-wicket losses in World Cup matches over an 11-month span. And the barrage of inquiries starts again once more.
In the midst of all the excitement and anticipation surrounding a potential India-Pakistan World Cup T20 final in 2022, Team India exited the tournament in the laziest conceivable fashion. The Men in Blue were supposed to show up for the knockout match against England on Thursday, November 10 at the Adelaide Oval and give them a serious fight. They ultimately lost by 10 wickets.
After Team India lost the toss and decided to bat first, they had a dismal start, losing both of their openers—KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma—cheaply. Suryakumar Yadav, who was in excellent form, was unable to perform on the big day. With contrasting half-centuries, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya were left to save the innings as India scored 168/6.
The batting comeback by Team India would have been sufficient. However, the bowling was so horrendously bad that England easily won the match. India’s elimination from the T20 World Cup was all but guaranteed once the opposition openers sped to 63/0 at the end of the powerplay.
While Team India did win four of their five games and finished first in their group after the Super 12 stage, their campaign was not as successful as the figures would have one believe.
Here are three significant errors Team India made on the way to the T20 World Cup 2022.
Substituting Rishab Pant for DK.
In the middle of their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign, the Rishabh Pant vs. Dinesh Karthik controversy stood out like a sore thumb for Team India’s lack of coherence. Karthik was chosen for the first four games, and with good reason—he performed better than Pant in the run-up to the ICC tournament.
However, the 37-year-old was left off the starting lineup for Team India’s final Super 12 game against Zimbabwe. His ratings of 1, 6, and 7 indicate that he failed miserably with the willow on paper. But as the saying goes, numbers can frequently be deceptive.
If you take a deeper look, you’ll see that, aside from the game against South Africa, he hardly ever had the opportunity to demonstrate his skill with the willow. His miscommunication with Kohli caused him to be unfortunate to be run out against Bangladesh. Karthik might have deserved one more chance to attempt and make an impression, unlike Ashwin and Axar.
Team India made the sudden decision to include Pant in the fray. He only managed three versus Zimbabwe, registering another failure. For the semifinal matchup with England, the think tank stayed with him. The hypothesis that a left-handed batter would be more effective against the leg-spinner Adil Rashid was disproved when Hardik Pandya was elevated over Pant.
Even as India T20 World Cup campaign came to a close, the Karthik vs. Pant issue remained unresolved in the end.
- No hopes for Yuzi.
R Ashwin is India’s leading limited-overs spinner with 21 wickets from 19 games; therefore, Yuzvendra Chahal’s benching in favor of him can only be explained by the team’s management. When Chahal was left off the team for the World Cup T20 last year, many thought India would learn from the mistake, but that was not the case. In a tournament where Pakistan Shadab Khan and England’s Adil Rashid routinely troubled hitters with their wrist-spin, Chahal did not receive a single game. Why? perhaps never. If the tactical choice was made with the belief that Ashwin could provide runs, as he did by scoring the decisive runs against Pakistan and hitting a six and a four against Bangladesh, it sends out an even worse message. If Ashwin the spinner is added to the playing XI as an all-rounder, India’s famed top-order deserves a thrashing and to have their place in the team reevaluated.
- Failure of pace bowlers ? Does India need quality young talent
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep had performed admirably for India. The seasoned India fast showed glimpses of his spectacular self while the youthful left-arm bowler, very properly, positioned himself as the next big thing in Indian cricket. However, India lacked a real speedster capable of hitting 145 ticks on Australian pitches on a regular basis. Alarm bells started to go out as soon as Jasprit Bumrah was hurt, and despite Mohammed Shami’s late SOS—he hadn’t played in a T20I since November of last year—India still had a big box to check. It’s time to stand up and move around. While it might take some time before Umran Malik is ready to be taken for granted, he needs to be developed and be present for every series, even as a net bowler would, but like Pakistan’s Haris Rauf, the 22-year-old speed sensation needs to be considered as a potential pace option for Indian cricket in the future.
Wrapping Up
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