The Indian team walked in to the tournament as one of the favourites. The Indian team sported a formidable squad and was expected to qualify as the Group Toppers in to the Semis.
But a shocking defeat at the hands of Pakistan, followed by NewZealand have somehow virtually dented India's qualification chances.
With 2 games down the drain and 3 to follow, India's qualification not only depends solely on winning the games but also on other complex mathematical calculations involving the Net Run Rate.
Today, we will be discussing about the fact what went wrong for India in the 2 matches so far.
1) Toss fortune:
Virat Kohli has a knack of losing all important tosses and there has been no deviation from this fact in the T20 World Cup too. India lost both the tosses and were put to bat first in grounds where there was dew coming in the later stages. Losing the toss proved detrimental for team India as defending low targets in the dew is very tough to execute.
2) Top Order failure:
The Indian team has often come under the scanner for their team selections in big matches. In the all important match against Pakistan the top order comprising of 4 Right Handers was left exposed as to the inswinging left arm angle of Shaheen Afridi, who ended up scalping the wickets of both the openers. In the second game against New Zealand, India tried to change things up by bringing in left handed Ishan Kishan but he too failed against the left arm swing of Trent Boult while others struggled negotiating him. As a result, India failed to score big in poweplays in both the matches.
3) Inability to get off to flying starts:
If we look at the poweplay stat of India in both the matches we could see scores of 36/3 and 35/2 respectively. This clearly indicates that Indian team top order failed to utilize the powerplays, and ended up putting more pressure on the middle order.
4) Lack of acceleration in the middle and end overs:
As the Indian team failed to get big starts the pressure of reconsolidating the innings fell on the middle order. In both the games, the middle order had to rebuild the innings and then go for the kill in the last 5 overs. But lack of a good partnership further dented Team India's chances. The pressure was so immense that India failed to hit a single boundary in between overs 7 and 15 in the game against New Zealand.
5) No Plan B in terms of game play:
The Indian team had a set template in both the matches they played. The top order was expected to score bulk of the runs while the mystery spinner and death bowlers would choke the opposition in the end. But with India losing the toss and dew coming in, this plan failed miserably.
India definitely needed a plan B in both the matches as they ended up losing the toss as well as wickets in the early stages of the innings. Also the bowlers were finding it tough to hit the right areas with the wet ball.
6) Lack of execution in the bowling department:
The Indian bowlers did not had the best of the tournaments with the ball too. The Indian bowlers managed to scalp only 2 wickets in the 2 matches so far. Barring Jasprit Bumrah who looked lethal and economical none of the other bowlers had the same tenacity. The spinners leaked runs in the middle and failed to execute as per the plans with the ball being wet and hard to grip. Moreover India picked up a wrist spinner in the form of Rahul Chahar who is yet to feature in the tournament so far.
India is scheduled to play Afghanistan next followed by Scotland and Namibia. If India needs to put their foot in the Semis, they need to beat the opposition with big margins and also need to work on the mistakes that they have conceded so far in the tournament.
