4 reasons behind India’s elimination from the T20 World Cup 2021
Would we ever have imagined that India, one of the favorites to win the T20 World Cup, could bow out of the tournament in the group stages? Well, it happened. India were eliminated from the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 taking place in UAE & Oman.
It's no doubt that India is one of the strongest cricket teams, they take pride in their cricket. They have some extremely talented players like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant who can single-handedly win you matches. Since the Super 12s stage of the World Cup 2021 was taking place on slow pitches in UAE, India had their bases covered with quality spinners like Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar & Varun Chakravarthy.
So what went wrong for Team India? Here we try and shed some light on some reasons that might have caused Team India to be eliminated from the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021.
#1. Bubble & IPL fatigue
Each member of the Indian squad that was announced for the World Cup was a part of IPL, which took place right before the T20 World Cup 2021. It meant that they had to play the Indian Premier League under the COVID-19 bubble. Notably, the Indian team has constantly been moving from one bio-secure bubble to another, be it their tour to England & Sri Lanka or the IPL.
Some members of the Indian squad, more recently premier fast bowler Bumrah talked about the hardships & fatigue that come with these conditions. On top of that, playing a massive tournament like IPL just before the World Cup didn’t help because the Indian players looked burnt out, especially in their first two group stage matches against their arch-rivals Pakistan and also against New Zealand.
In fact, after the Indian team’s defeat against New Zealand, Bumrah said, ‘’Sometimes you need a break’’. Winning those two matches against the two other better-ranked & strong teams in the group was of paramount importance for India, unfortunately, they couldn’t win both.
#2. Schedule of India’s matches
The scheduling of the tournament shouldn’t bother international cricket teams and it shouldn’t be a reason for elimination, but in the case of Team India, it can be one of the reasons why team Virat Kohli's men were eliminated.
India’s first game was against their arch-rivals Pakistan on the 24th of October. Unfortunately, team India faced a demoralizing defeat and were blown away by Pakistan by a margin of 10 wickets. This was not only India’s first loss against Pakistan in the World Cups, but it was also team India’s only loss by a huge margin of 10 wickets.
This defeat might have dented their confidence, but playing their next game against New Zealand after a wait of over a week, didn’t help at all. The more they waited after their humiliating defeat against their arch-rivals, the more pressure was piled upon them by social media and their fans. The best response to a demoralizing defeat is to get on the ground and try to win the next game as soon as possible to take off the pressure, which didn’t happen in the case of India because of the absurd scheduling of the tournament. In fact, by the time India played their second game of the tournament against the Blackcaps, Pakistan had already played and won three games.
#3. Team selection
Many were baffled by the Indian team that was selected for the T20 World Cup 2021. Top performers in IPL like Ruturaj Gaikwad (highest run-scorer), Harshal Patel (leading wicket-taker) and Yuzvendra Chahal were not part of India’s T20 World Cup squad. India selected a balanced team in their game against Pakistan. Though one would argue that Ravichandran Ashwin should have been a part of the playing eleven considering the experience, variety, and guile that he brings into India’s bowling attack.
Most teams went in with a proper leg-spinner and India could have benefited by playing Rahul Chahar. Hardik Pandya was not fit enough to bowl, which disturbed the overall balance of the team. But against Pakistan, India’s explosive top order was dismantled. That was the prime reason for India losing their first match of the world cup.
The selection woes became imminent in the second match against New Zealand. It felt like India pressed the panic button with some surprising selections. Replacing the injured Suryakumar Yadav with Ishan Kishan was the right move, but playing him as an opener and demoting Rohit Sharma at 3 was perhaps not the best of calls.
Rohit Sharma & KL Rahul have been instrumental as openers, and they’ve won many matches for India by giving the team explosive starts in the powerplay. Breaking up that opening pair in a do-or-die game was something that could have been avoided. In the next three games that India played, although against weaker opponents, the opening pair was in belligerent form. The Rohit-Rahul duo single-handedly won all three games for team India, something that should be a lesson: never disturb your settled batting order after only one loss.
#4. Toss and unnecessary pressure
Toss is playing an important role in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021. With dew being a factor later in the innings, teams winning the toss are opting to bowl first. Not only does that provide the opportunity for bowlers to bowl with a dry ball, but it also helps the pitch play better because of the dew. It becomes harder for the bowlers to grip the bowl in the evening.
Unfortunately, India lost both the tosses against Pakistan and New Zealand. Although, this cannot be considered a reason to lose the match because both teams must bat and bowl on the same ground & the same pitch. But it does favor the team batting second, as we have seen from the results in the tournament where most of the matches have been won by the team batting second.
The captain of the Indian team, Virat Kohli, announced that this would be his final World Cup as the captain of the side. Ravi Shastri, Indian Head Coach, will also be leaving his role. With all of this and their first result against Pakistan, team India looked exposed and under pressure.
Although this World Cup campaign has been one of the worst for India, all is still not lost. India is a cricket-rich country, with amazingly talented players, who will bounce back even harder in the T20 World Cup 2022 taking place in Australia. Team India has won all the major ICC trophies, be it the ODI World Cup (twice), the T20 World Cup, or the Champions Trophy. With the new captain and coach at their helm, we expect Team India to be back on their winning ways in their upcoming series against New Zealand.
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Written by Waqas Mustafa (Sky247 Team)