In just one sledgehammer blow, the aura of invincibility has been snatched from defending champions India. The 76-run hammering from South Africa has thrown India into the realms of unpredictability.
Who would have thought before the start of the tournament that the ICC ranked No. 1 T20 team will be languishing in third spot in their own Super Eights group with clouds of doubt hovering over their semifinal prospects.
Things have now come to a pass where the Suryakumar Yadav-led side has to not just win its next two matches but win with big margins to make it to the semifinals. The dreaded calculator moment has arrived and India are left playing a game of permutations and combinations.
If India and South Africa win the rest of their Super Eights matches, both will qualify for the semifinals. In any other scenario, the net run rate will come into play. India’s NRR is negative 3.800. But before the talk of NRR, one thing is certain that India have to win both their matches now. Such has been the trauma of the SA walloping at Ahmedabad that India’s next two opponents, Zimbabwe and West Indies, have suddenly started to look overbearing in the fans’ eyes.
Former India captain Anil Kumble said, “Every game counts at this stage. India need to win convincingly, much like West Indies did (vs Zimbabwe). The primary focus should be on winning both the matches.”
That India have just lost one match in the tournament, and that too to a strong title contender, has been lost somewhere in the frenzy of the Indian cricket fans’ minds. But wins against USA, Namibia and Netherlands have not inspired much confidence in the opinion of the experts and critics.
Former India and international cricketers have found India ‘predictable’, ‘one-dimensional banking on attack’, ‘lacking game awareness’ and ‘fragile’. Those who went gaga over Indian batters’ cavalier and aggressive approach are now questioning their intent and shot selection.
The famed Indian batting top-order, which is used to shredding bowlers for the last two years, has come a nought just when it matters — one of the two openers succumbed to an off-spinner in three matches. Their shot selection is under serious scrutiny with talks of replacements and change in the batting order.
Of all the things that are troubling India the most worrying is that the team does not have a plan when things start going wrong.
More than Zimbabwe and West Indies, India are fighting with their own doubts — whether to stick to what they have been doing for the last two years or yield to knee-jerk reactions.
Drop Abhishek Sharma or Tilak Varma to bring in Sanju Samson, who is not in form? Should Suryakumar Yadav come up at No. 3? How Kuldeep Yadav could be adjusted in the playing XI? These are the vexing questions the Indian team management faces after the SA defeat.
The only solace for India is that they are not recuperating from trauma alone. Doubts have crept into the Zimbabwe bowlers’ minds also after they suffered a massive 107-run defeat to West Indies in Mumbai on Monday. The Indian team management would be looking for answers to their problems as they revisit the match to assess their next two opponents.