Seven months ago, losing against Australia hurt the Indian fans and cricketers the most, but the wound is old and grave.
In 2022, India lost against England by 10 wickets. In any format of Cricket, at any point, a 10-wicket loss is significant, a humiliating one. Indian team arguably have one the world's best batters and openers, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, one of the top allrounders, Hardik Pandya and one of the world's best fast bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah.
India was done and dusted by England, who eventually won the trophy.
Even Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took a dig at India as Pakistan gained their first-ever World Cup win against India just a year ago; Pakistan also beat India in a group stage game of the 2021 World Cup by 10 wickets.
Having top-notch facilities, these losses are hard to swallow for the men in blue, which has the best T20 leagues worldwide with the best players in the line-up and bench.
2023- India lost to Australia by 6 wickets in the ODI World Cup final.
2022- India lost to England by 10 wickets in the T20 World Cup semifinal.
2019- India lost to New Zealand by 18 runs in the ODI World Cup semifinal.
2017- India lost to Pakistan by 180 runs in the Champions Trophy final.
2015- India lost to Australia by 95 runs in the ODI World Cup semifinal.
Now India awaits another semifinal; this time, it is again vs England.
Where does the problem lie? Reason number 1, 'Slow Top Order'
Let's look at India's top order in the 10-wicket loss in the last T20 World Cup semifinal against England.
- Lokesh Rahul 5 runs in 5 balls.
- Rohit Sharma scored 27 runs facing 28 balls.
- Virat Kohli scored a half-century in 40 balls.
Do you expect this team to beat England, whose captain and opener, Jos Butler, has a strike rate of 145? This is the crucial problem to India's long-term knock-out woes. They play a safe and cautious game, and the opponent takes full advantage of it, as did England and Australia.
India scored 38 runs in the powerplay, losing one wicket; the score was even lower when the team faced England, one of the top powerhouses for T20 cricket. All 11 players from England can bat (Adil Rashid had 10 First-class centuries), and seven players can bowl. Even if India made 200 runs on that specific day, England had the power to chase that.
Over-cautious Plan B
India was rearing for glory in the last ODI World Cup on the home ground; Ahmedabad coloured blue for the final, but 11 men wearing yellow overshadowed 130 thousand wearing blue.
India started fast and firmly in the final; they made 80-2 in 10 overs.
Suddenly, it was 81-3, and India slowed down with Virat Kohli and Lokesh Rahul at the crease.
Virat scored one of his most boring 50s in a while, a 63-ball 54, and Lokesh made it worse with a 107-ball 66.
There was a tactic that was too safe, cautious, and too much into the shell. And Australia took full advantage of the situation. After Kohli and Rahul returned to the hut, no Indian player could fire the cannon.
Ravindra Jadeja made 9 runs of 22 balls, and Surya Kumar Yadav, known for his strike rate and power-hitting abilities, scored 18 of 22 balls. They were left with too much to do by Kohli and Rahul. The scorecard indicates India was fiery initially, and Plan B was too cautious.
Lack of multitaskers
India has a team with many players who are special at one trick. Kohli doesn't bowl, Rohit doesn't bowl, Surya doesn't bowl. Dube bowls rarely. Bumrah cannot bat, Kuldeep is not a great batter, Arshdeep is not known for his batting.
In the England team, if you keep the full-time wicketkeepers apart (Jos, Phil, Johny), seven cricketers can bat and bowl; it will be eight if Will Jack plays.
If you keep Reece Topley out of the equation, as he only had to touch the bat eight times in the 31 matches of his T20-I career, the rest of the players can keep contributions.
Even Afghanistan had eight bowlers who bowled at least one over vs Australia in their historic win on the way to their first-ever semifinal.
India's Hardik Pandya is a special breed that plays a crucial role in bat and ball. But their seasoned allrounder, Ravindra Jadeja, lost his flair with the bat.
Still, India has all the attributes to become the champion of any format, but they have to leave the shell; they need to be ruthless and fearless like Rohit Sharma was vs Australia; even players like Travis Head looked slow against the strike rate of Rohit Sharma on that day.
Rohit and Jos Buttler share the same numbers in this tournament, 191 runs in 6 innings, with a strike rate of 159. Someone will go ahead; someone will make his way back home.
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