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Cricket Players3 things India need to do right away to beat Afghanistan and remind critics of their prowess in T20 World Cup
Virat Kohli's India need to beat Afghanistan on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi to stay alive in the tournament. Here are three major areas India need to improve to beat Afghanistan and bring their T20 World Cup campaign back on track.
India are in danger of being knocked out of a World Cup with three league matches still remaining, when was the last time something as bizarre as this happened? Scratch your heads hard. Let us help you a bit. NEVER! While India did have disappointing campaigns in the 1975, 1979, 1992 and 2007 World Cups where they did not advance beyond the first round but the formats were different. There were either lesser matches - in 1975, 1979 and 2007 or their fate remained in their own hands deep into the group stages - in 1992. Never have an Indian side faced elimination with as many as three matches to go in the first round like they are doing now in this T20 World Cup.
After crushing defeats to Pakistan - by 10 wickets and New Zealand - by 8 wickets and more than five overs to spare - India's fate no longer remain in their own performance. Their best bet is to ensure they beat Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia by big margins and then hope either of the these three upset New Zealand to bring net run rate into play. Even then, India's disastrous run rate (-1.609) might become an issue.
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But first things first, Virat Kohli's men need to beat Afghanistan on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi to stay alive in the tournament. Here are three major areas India need to improve to beat Afghanistan and bring their T20 World Cup campaign back on track.
Get the selection right
India had picked five spinners and only three specialist seam bowling options in their initial 15-member squad. Question marks over Hardik Pandya's bowling forced them to replace Axar Patel with Shardul Thakur. Even then, they were left with four genuine spinners, meaning their thought process before the tournament was to strangle the opposition with spin. And rightly so. The slow nature of the UAE pitches, the bigger boundaries make spinners a match-winning option. But for reasons unknown, there has been no sign of that in their XI in the first two matches. They went with two spinners and decided to bench Ashwin and Rahul Chahar - perhaps their best bets to pick wickets in the middle. The choice of seamers too haven't been that convincing. Yes, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has not been at his best but he provides extra options at the death. With the XI that India went in with against New Zealand, there was no bankable option apart from Bumrah at the death. Even if India had somehow managed to give a 150-plus target, it would have been very difficult to defend.
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Stop treating 150 as a safe total even on slow tracks
When you have a top three comprising Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli. Throw in Ishan Kishan there too, the opposition should be on the defensive, not the other way around. But Rahul, Rohit and Kohli have sort of pre-decided a safe total in their minds before even walking out to bat. Their approach of ‘getting their eyes in’ before attempting shots has never allowed India to get off to a start. In 2021, it is a strict no no to have three world class players whose first instinct is to accumulate and then go for shots in T20 cricket. That seemed to have rubbed off in the rest of the Indian batting unit. The pitches in UAE are not conducive for strokeplay on the up, especially when batting first but that in no way means there won't be intent. If India's batters can bat without the fear of losing wickets then they can be as destructive as anyone, something that they desperately need to bring their campaign back on track.
Plan but also be prepared to break the set pattern
Be it batting, bowling or fielding, there seems to be a set pattern in everything that India do in T20Is, which is not the ideal thing in this format, where the game is largely depended on instincts. Teams like England, Pakistan have definite plans against each of their opponents but they are also ready to improvise based on the match situation. This has been missing in India's case. Firstly, their plan A (if their was one) hasn't worked at all against any of the New Zealand or Pakistan players. The same left-armer dismantled their top-order, the same Trent Boult, Ish Sodhi, and Mitchell Santner gave them troubles. And when their first plan failed, they appeared clueless. While defending 110, the idea to start with Varun Chakravarthy was good but the field he got in no way suggested that India were going for wickets.
