India’s long wait for an ICC trophy has got even longer. For all Indian captains have looked like Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt in the famous sci-fi movie Edge of Tomorrow. They go into every tournament as favourites. There are some exceptional performances on the way to knockouts (when they do) but somehow they always fall short of the trophy India have longed for in all formats.
Since the Champions Trophy 2013, India have not been able to find the midas touch. Instead, it has been converted into Sadim touch as they have choked in big games like South Africa.
In T20 World Cup 2022, India had a good run at the Super 12 stage winning two closely-fought games. Even in the South Africa game, there were some on-field mistakes that led to India’s loss and it did not seem like they were out of the game just after six overs.
However, against the mighty England who fearlessly follow their template, India looked out of the game. India had lack of wicket-takers in the middle overs. Barring the Zimbabwe game, Ravichandran Ashwin has not been able to deliver in the middle overs. On the Adelaide Oval pitch, where spinners get help from the surface and the likes of Adam Zampa and Ish Sodhi had a fantastic record, Yuzvendra Chahal was ignored.
Before the T20 World Cup, Chahal was India’s primary spinner and was expected to feature in the side. However, maybe, in a bid to stretch the batting lineup, Chahal was ignored.
Chahal could have been lethal on a track like Adelaide where Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone were able to extract much spin. Rashid, Livingstone combined to concede 41 runs from just seven overs. Rashid even got the massive wicket of big-hitter Suryakumar Yadav.
In the age of extensive analysis, numbers favoured Chahal’s inclusion over Ashwin. The leggie is not afraid of pitching it up. On a small ground like M.Chinnaswamy in Bengaluru, Chahal was able to get a six-wicket haul against England in the format. As far as matchups were concerned, Chahal was lethal against left-handed batters as well.
In the previous edition of T20 World Cup in UAE, Chahal was not picked and an inexperienced Rahul Chahar boarded the flight. An year later, Chahal was backed over anyone in bilateral series but immediately there was a change of plan and Ashwin took the centrestage. Seems a bit unfair, doesn’t it?
While defending 169, as India were not getting the breakthrough, Axar Patel leaking boundaries added even more pressure. On the eve of semi-final, legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar suggested that India should have Harshal Patel in the side instead of Axar Patel. Harshal bowled well in the warm-up game against Australia but Shami’s three-wicket over outshone him and all of a sudden the death overs speciallist was warming the benches.
For the sake of matchups and current form, Harshal looked a better bet than Axar. The left-arm spinner was not picking up wickets and was barely used in the batting lineup. “If you're giving Axar Patel 1-2 overs, and can't use his full overs, then why are we picking him?” Gavaskar had said.
The correct way of using matchups
Delving deeper into analysis and matchups, it seemed like England had all their bases covered. They knew Indian openers were struggling and have not had success in the powerplay overs to put teams under pressure. Rahul fell into the trap whereas Rohit, Kohli barely survived against England pace attack which lacked the lethal pace of an injured Mark Wood.
After an old-fashioned approach in the powerplay overs, they were able to frustrate Rohit in the middle overs. They did not bowl too short to him and the field placement was on point. Eventually, the Indian skipper gave in and threw away his wicket. The boundaries were scarce and dot balls were plenty.
The biggest threat was Suryakumar Yadav and for a brief period of team he had England Test skipper Ben Stokes scratching his head. As per Nasser Hussain on the eve of second semi-final, the WhatsApp group that he used to get statistics went silent when he asked for Surya’s weakness. The only hope was that of a slow left-arm spinner which England did not have. Rashid had not been at his best either but he bowled it slow and used the square boundaries to the best effect to nullify the Surya threat. It was only Hardik Pandya's brute hitting that gave India some momentum after a rather dull passage of play.
Are we really looking ahead?
Even in the post-match press conference, Rahul Dravid explained the reason why Indian players don’t play Big Bash League (BBL). Dravid said that it would mean an end to India’s domestic cricket, especially Ranji Trophy. Also, Indian players cannot participate in the league due to international cricket. But, other countries don’t commit their players for the whole BBL season either. Even Australia play international cricket during BBL and only participate when they are relieved of their national duties. On the other hand, foreign players benefit when it comes to IPL. Some of them go on to credit their international success to IPL so why can’t Indian cricketers do the same?
Indian team management, selectors and the board has a lot of questions to answer in a short span of time with ODI World Cup 2023 just around the corner. It will be interesting to see whether they embark on a new chapter or continue to follow the outdated script which leads them nowhere but home with empty hands and disappointed fans.
