How Did Team India Fail To Win The T20 World Cup Once Again?

A lot of hue and cry is currently ongoing as India were shown the way out in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2022. It isn't because team India yet again choked in the knockout stages of an ICC tournament, fans are used to it now. But the way England thrashed India in the semi-finals, would leave a deep scar. 

India were the most successful team in the Super 12 stage, where they lost only one match while winning 4 of them and qualifying as the top team in Super 12 since none of the other teams had more than 3 wins. However, if we look closely, these wins shouldn't have been the base to term team India as 'favourites'. 

A close win against Pakistan, a defeat agains South Africa, and another close win against Bangladesh added with sketchy wins against Netherlands and Zimbabwe. Team India didn't look dangerous enough to go the distance and lift the World Cup.

After a group stage exit in the T20 World Cup, the new captain Rohit Sharma talked about a change in the T20 approach, adopting a more aggressive approach in T20Is. From thereon, India went on to win 26 out of 35 T20Is maintaining a rate of 9.32 runs per over in these matches. Two months ago, India failed to make it to the final of Asia Cup 2022 as they managed only 1 win in the Super Four stage. 

India arrived early for the T20 World Cup in Australia and played a practice match. The captain and coach along with the players assessed the conditions, the pace and carry and the nature of the pitches, and decided to throw the aggressive approach down the drain. The Indian batters had a visible approach, play out the first 10 overs and go big in the last 10. 

Virat Kohli, a prime example of this approach, used this to accumulate runs. However, the ace batter often left too much to do at the end while maintaining a cautious approach at the start. KL Rahul was short on the intent of hitting from ball 1 while Kohli didn't attack the spinners even once in the middle overs. 

Against Pakistan, Kohli cautiously guided his way through to the death overs against excellent bowling, and with occasional boundaries and efficient running kept India in the match. In the end, he went big as India crossed the finish line. However, this approach failed miserably while batting first against England. 

Prior to this, 2-night matches were played at Adelaide Oval in this World Cup, where Australia and India were given a big scare by Afghanistan and Bangladesh respectively, a scare by the teams chasing. The pitch acted slow in the first innings but skidded through the bat nicely in the second innings. 

After losing the toss and being put in to bat first, Rohit Sharma in a curious decision said that he wanted to bat first anyway, on conditions that supported teams batting 2nd. On a pitch where 200 was possible, the Indians threw the game away with their cautious approach in the first 10 overs. 

India scored just 38 runs in the first 6 overs, the powerplay while losing KL Rahu's wicket. At the end of 10 overs, India were at 62/2, still batting at a run rate of just above 6. Courtesy of Hardik Pandya's firepower, India scored 106 runs in the last 10 overs, with 58 of them coming in the last 4 hours, India crossed the 160-run mark. However, they were short on a pitch that was slow during their inning but was going to improve for batting in the second half. 

Virat Kohli scored 50 runs and took 40 balls for it, while India's star player for this World Cup, Suryakumar Yadav, departed early which meant an average total for team India at best. Hardik Pandya's batting was a silver lining as he smashed 63 runs off 33 balls. 

When England came out to bat, the Indians were short on energy and the ball was coming on to the bat nicely. Explosive openers Jos Buttler and Alex Hales took charge as these two cruised to the target of 169 runs with 4 overs remaining, winning the match by 10 wickets. 

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With this huge loss, team India is expected to go through a flurry of changes in the T20I side which is currently rigged with criticism from fans and experts all around. Nevertheless, the wait for T20 World Cup goes on and the focus shifts to the 2023 ODI World Cup which is being hosted by team India, and naturally, the team will once again be expected to do well!