India’s defeat against Pak, NZ a captaincy blunder and poor squad selection.
T20 World Cup 2021: The Indian team, which was cheered by a billion fans before the start of the showpeice event and even until the second match, shattered all the hopes of India lifting an ICC title under Virat Kohli in 2021. The T20 World Cup 2021 is underway and India has lost control of its vehicle, the least to say, with two drubbing on the trot against Pakistan and New Zealand respectively.
Netizens, on a mass scale, have started a boycott of the individual cricketers, who were their heroes a few days back. What could have happened over these few days that led to India’s fallout in the multi-team tournament? India has had several defeats in the past, but what actually happened in this T20 World Cup that remained in the hearts of Indian fans who kept dreaming to lift the coveted ICC trophy once again.
Virat Kohli’s captaincy blunder:
Regular Indian skipper Virat Kohli is no doubt one of the best batsmen in the world, at present, but his mettle as the skipper of the Indian side has not impressed anyone. Kohli has an outstanding record against every single ICC team in bilateral matches, however, the case is drastically opposite in the multi-teams ICC tournaments.
The fact that Virat has never won an ICC tournament and even IPL has created a hole in the illustrious cricketing career of the Indian captain. The ongoing T20 World Cup 2021 is going to be his last assignment as the skipper of the Indian T20 side as he himself has decided to step down from the highest order roles and responsibilities.
Several experts believe that Virat finds it easier to chase a team in bilateral series when there are back to back matches happening against the same side. With five matches series against a single opposition, Virat gets ample time to correct the mishappening of the last match and cover the loopholes before they head to the next match.
However, this is certainly not the case when you play ICC tournaments. Each side gets to play against one opposition just once in the league stages and planning and execution of the plans get trickier there. If you concede an error, you are probably going to get punished for that and there is no word like a second chance.
Moreover, the team selection that more or less goes on the basis of the stature of the player and not on the present record has dented India’s hopes several times. Against New Zealand, Virat tried to create a protective covering around Rohit Sharma, who usually face the first delivery of the innings, by promoting Ishan Kishan to Rohit’s place which was a blunder from the skipper.
“Now what has happened is that Rohit Sharma has been told that we don’t trust you to face the left-arm fast bowling of Trent Boult. If you do that to a player who has been playing at the position for so many years, he himself will think that maybe he doesn’t have the ability,” Sunil Gavaskar said on India today.
In the match against Pakistan, Virat opted to open an Indian bowling attack with Mohammad Shami instead of Jasprit Bumrah, which was adjudged as the major error from the skipper. Moreover, Jasprit Bumrah was not appropriately utilised by the skipper which was again a brutal sign of captaincy failure.
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Poor Squad Selection for the T20 World Cup 2021:
The All India Senior Selection Committee has now come under the radar of BCCI for not selecting the right player in the T20 World Cup 2021. The selectors might have to a heavy price for their poor choice of selection for the World Cup as the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah is surely going to have a touch questioning round.
The choice of selection looked to be pre-planned as the players who were in current good form were neglected over the players who had shown some great signs in the past.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who is having a tough time for two years or so, was picked ahead of Deepak Chahar. The selectors couldn’t understand that Kumar is not in his prime touch for the last two years or so and his IPL 2021 campaign was not encouraging either to put him ahead of any other bowler. Deepak Chahar who have the knack of picking up wickets in the powerplay could have been the best player in place of Bhuvneshwar, but he is kept in the reserves.
Ishan Kishan, who had a horrible time in the entire IPL 2021 except in the last few matches, was chosen as the backup opener. Would it have made a difference had Ruturaj Gaikwad, who won the orange cap in IPL 2021, got selected for the role? Surely he would have done the job right for the team, at least considering his current sublime form.
Rahul Chahar, who merely has a bit more pacy deliveries, was selected ahead of experienced Yuzvendra Chahal. The former spinner didn’t have his best time in the field during the recent IPL, he was even benched for the last few matches of Mumbai Indians, but still, the selectors did pick him, majorly due to the fact that he was the pick of the bowler in the two matches he played in the recent Sri Lanka tour.
Certainly, the questions are going to be raised against the selection committee for such unexplainable choices.
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