Team India’s hopes for a semi-final qualification of the 2021 T20 World Cup took a massive hit on Sunday when it conceded a crushing 8-wicket defeat to New Zealand. After a landslide loss to arch-rivals Pakistan in their opening game, Virat Kohli and co. needed a victory against New Zealand to stay on course for a final-four spot.
However, with a big loss to the Kiwis, India will not only need to win their remaining games but also hope for results to go their way in the other matches.
Against New Zealand, Team India faced significant difficulty tackling leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, who was named the player of the match for an excellent spell of 2/17 in four overs. He took the key wickets of Rohit Sharma (14) and Virat Kohli (9) to put India on backfoot. The dismissals eventually set the tone for the game as India failed to recover from the setbacks.
Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, in his analysis of the game, pointed out that India’s concerns against leg-spin have been a recent cause of worry for the batters.
{{/usCountry}}Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, in his analysis of the game, pointed out that India’s concerns against leg-spin have been a recent cause of worry for the batters.
{{/usCountry}}“I've noticed one thing, which is that the leg spinners who are mixing their deliveries, bowling googlies, top-spin, flipper, and normal leg-spin have been successful in the recent past against India,” Tendulkar said on his official Facebook page.
“Ish Sodhi was very effective, and on the other end, Santner also bowled well. Both gave only 32 runs in eight overs, which is a very impactful performance. I believe this is the area where we have to improve,” Tendulkar said.
The Indian batting legend further added that the Indian bowlers hadn’t been that effective, saying that the only way to build pressure on the opposition in such a low-scoring run-chase is to take early wickets.
“In (defending) such totals, you need to pick at least three wickets in the first six overs. We didn't concede many runs, Bumrah took one wicket but it wasn't an impactful start,” said Tendulkar.
"We started with Varun Chakravarthy, the mystery bowler. If their openers hadn't picked him, we had chances to take quick wickets. But it didn't happen.