NEW DELHI: A captain struggling to find his bearings, a team in which few players were picked on the basis of reputation than current form and jaded bodies desperately seeking a break from the bio-bubbles have all contributed to India’s disastrous T20 World Cup campaign.
In 2021, it will be very difficult to point fingers at one particular cause for this shoddy performance — it could be those first 12 balls from Shaheen Shah Afridi that scarred them, or perhaps it was about “not being brave enough” in terms of execution as skipper Virat Kohli said after the defeat to New Zealand. “I am shocked, not just by the loss, it’s the manner in which they have lost. You can have all the support staff but it’s about execution. It’s the cricketers who have to go out there and play.” Here’s a lowdown of series of possible reasons that contributed to the disastrous show so far:
1) King Kohli reaching business end of his captaincy career Every captain has a shelf life. It’s just that one needs to realise when he has reached the end of that cycle. Sunil Gavaskar had that judgement, and so did Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Virat Kohli realised it just before the T20 World Cup and very rightly decided to relinquish his leadership role in the shortest format (including IPL). But why has Kohli never been successful in multi-team events like the T20 World Cup, 50-over World Cups, Champions Trophy or the IPL? And why is he very successful in bilateral series? These are questions that have been befuddling for the cricket fraternity. When someone as reticent as VVS Laxman is sharp and pointed in his post-match analysis on ‘Star Sports’, it is a sure sign that all is not well.