Kolkata: The insurmountable shellacking that India got at the hands of England in the T20 World Cup semi-final in Adelaide Oval on Thursday exposed the loopholes that the team had even before the start of the tourney. The Rohit Sharma-led began the sojourn as invincible only on paper, sans a concrete plan.
The team had no trace of Mohammad Shami when the initial squad was announced. It was an untimely injury of Jasprit Bumrah that somehow pushed the Bengal pacer into the flight to Canberra. As Shami was drafted in, there should have been a proper ploy to use him to the team's needs and urgency.
Now, first things first. Let's start the post-mortem from the top. Opener KL Rahul looked a shadow of himself while captain Rohit Sharma looked to have been buried under the burden of captaincy. Sharma's 'out of the box' thinking was far from desired. The reason why India had to time and again rely on Virat Kohli to do the talking with the willow was the top-order's meek surrender on a regular basis.
Without Kohli's pyrotechnics, India would cut an even sorry figure in the T20 extravaganza. Analysing the team's strengths and weaknesses threadbare one must not forget how India made the semis. The slice of luck helped them to the coast against Pakistan and Bangladesh and lost to South Africa. However, they made no mistake in bulldozing only Zimbabwe and The Netherlands to collect significant points for the last-four berth, but not enough to advance further. At the semi-final, they could not have expected another minnow to crush.
Read: Debacle Decoded: Stubbornness in selections, archaic approach from top order
There are several other factors that did India in. For instance, Team India's plan was intriguing as far as Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant were concerned. Karthik, a designated finisher in the shortest format, was tried initially but failed. Plan B was to bring in Pant, considered a great talent, though currently, his body weight seems to be more than the talent he possesses.
The only silver lining in India's batting was the resurgence of 32-year-old Surya Kumar Yadav. But with only Kohli and SKY firing, India couldn't have expected anything more than what they achieved eventually. With the kind of platter India have had in their bowling in the last decade or so was utlised to perfection in the tournament Down Under. The team management had decided to go in with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and young sensation Arshadeep Singh with no backup plans in case one bowler gets a smacking in the initial overs. Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ashwin and Axar Patel completed the lineup but not the winning formula.
India's 15th man as Yuzvendra Chahal was not seen in a single outing, and the team management was indifferent even after Axar and Ravi Ashwin failed.
Last but not the least, head coach Rahul Dravid also had a forgetful tour this time. But as things stand, Dravid is one of the greatest batters in the history of the game, an average captain during his time, and a pathetic coach to say the least. His batting exploits are for everyone to see. As far as captaincy is concerned, his only World Cup (2007) under the coaching of Greg Chappell ended in the first round after losing to Bangladesh. However, Dravid as a coach failed to leave an impression given India's showing in the T20 World Cup.
With the spate of recent drubbing, heads must roll! Let's wait and watch how the Board of Control for Cricket in India handles the situation hereafter.
