Articles

Record Defeat of Team India: ICC T20 World Cup

by Deepanshu Srivastava

The eighth edition of the men’s ICCT20 world cup was held from October 16 to November 13 in Australia. All 16 teams participated in this tournament 12 of them got direct entry whereas the remaining 4 teams entered the tournament after playing the Qualifiers. Team West Indies which is the holder of two times trophies could not even qualify for the super 12 in this world cup, having many ups and downs and shocking results.

Team India was placed in Group 2 along with Proteas, Pakistan, Holland, Bangla Desh, and Zimbabwe whereas in group 1 Australia, Kiwis, Sri Lanka, England, Afghanistan, and Ireland were placed.

Team India started its campaign on October 23 by playing with its arch-rival Pak and in a nervous breaking and thrilling match, it won by 4 wickets. The match was decided on the last ball. India qualified for the semifinal after defeating all the teams of group 2 except South Africa. From Group 1, Newzealand and England got qualified for the semis. Host and defending champion Australia could not even qualify for the semis. India could not reach the prestigious final due to its shameful display of the game and got defeated by the Britishers by all the 10 wickets. Such a defeat happened for the first time in the  15 years history of the world cup. It brought shame to the entire cricket-loving fraternity in India.

In this write up we have tried to find the reasons for the defeat.

REASONS:

(1) No proper opening partner for Captain Sharma

Hitman Sharma was without any support from his counterpart KL Rahul, who has been a usual batter at No 3 in all the previous matches. He was continuously experimented in this prestigious tournament and could score only 4, 9,9, 50, and 51 in the five matches of the super 12 stage while in the important semis against England he could score only 5 runs.

(2) Pathetic Form of the Captain

Rohit Sharma was at loss with the bat in all 5 clashes of the super 12 matches and could score only 4, 53, 15, 2, and 15 while in semis he was trapped cheaply by veteran Jordan at the score of 27.

(3) Strange selection of playing 11

Axar Patel who has hardly played international matches was preferred over Yuzvendra Chahal who has a good record in overseas matches.

It is universally known that Australian pitches are notoriously dangerous with their uneven bounce and suit speedsters the best, selectors went with 2 spinners and ignored real pacers of India with speeds of more than  140 kmph.

(4) Pant vs Karthik

In all the 6 matches that team India played, Karthik was selected in 4 out of 6 matches but all of a sudden he was changed with Pant in the semis where, as always, Pant failed miserably.

This logic was beyond imagination

(5)Limping middle order

The middle order including the stumpers Karthik and Pant were unable to give support for a handsome score with Yadav, Kohli, and Pandya showing inconsistency with their batting performances.

(6) Confused and over-age tail-enders

B Kumar, Shami, and Ashwin who formed the lower middle order were helpless with their bat against quality bowlers and looked tired while it is accepted truth that the game of T20 is for youngsters.

(7) Body language of the head coach

Head coach Rahul Dravid is no doubt a gem of test cricket, but he failed to infuse enthusiasm

amongst players due to his old style of cricketing skills. His body language is also a misfit for the game of youngsters.

(8) Depressed team India in semis

Team India looked under the immense pressure of entering into the final and was seen to be suffering from some kind of unknown fear.

 

About the Author:

Deepanshu Srivastava, an interpretative journalist, a sports writer, a news enthusiast, and a storyteller is from Pune. He may be reached through: – [email protected]

2 Comments

  1. Dr. VIJENDRA NATH, Ph.D

    Well written article highlighting the main eight reasons for defeat of Indian men cricket team in WC T 20 tournament 2022. The author has correctly pointed out the wrong selection of Indian players for T 20 cricket and coach who is not having enough experience of youngsters cricket.
    This article may help for further selection of Indian team for T20 cricket to the concerned.
    My best wishes to the author.

  2. Informative with eagle eyes insight about cricket team’s under rated performance.