Team India have been left gasping for breath after two crushing defeats in their first two games of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup as their qualification chances hang by a very slim thread. One of the pre-tournament favourites, India have been dealt with body blows as their batting line-up has crumbled under pressure by opening bursts by Pakistan and New Zealand pacers in the powerplay in the respective games.
Virat Kohli, who is leading India in his first and last T20 World Cup as he will be stepping down as the team’s captain in the shortest format has had a tough start and will be hoping to finish on a high, even if they lose out on a semi-final sport, which seems highly likely.
One of the biggest reasons has been the instability in team selection after a poor squad selection. The team management has stayed away from making tough calls and not being able to select specialists in the T20 format for the World Cup has hurt them badly in the tournament.
The seniors have either played too conservatively or went after everything inducing hesitation and nervousness as to when to attack and when not. India were quick to make changes after the 10-wicket humbling by Pakistan bringing in bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur in place of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. And even though Suryakumr Yadav was not fit, those are the small things that hurt teams in big competitions and big matches.
Former skipper MS Dhoni, who is currently the mentor with the side made everyone playing under him feel secure about their place in the side even if they had a couple of bad games, giving them the confidence to perform and come back which is completely opposite to this side, as players are not sure if they will remain in the side or will be dropped if they are not able to hit the ground running.
Another factor in both the losses has been the luck factor. If it has to go wrong and it goes from the very start as losing the toss in both games has proven to be decisive. In most of the games in Dubai especially, the ball seems to move and do a bit early on and batters are confused as to which approach to play with and in-betweenness has led them to losing wickets in a hurry.
New Zealand restricted India to just 110 runs, in what skipper Kohli said was a ‘bizarre’ batting display and the score was never going to be enough as they now hope for a miracle to qualify for the knockouts.
