Captain Virat Kohli after the massive loss at the T20 Worldcup, blamed it on the team's attitude. "I don't think we were brave enough with bat or ball. Every time we took a chance, we lost a wicket. It's most often a result of hesitation of whether you should go for a shot or not… Didn't have much to defend but we weren't brave when we walked out to the field," he said after the match.
A team with a skipper, who personifies boldness, succumbed to timidity. Kohli admitted as much when he said: "When you play for India, there are loads of expectations. We are watched, people come to the stadium and everyone who plays for India needs to embrace that and cope with it. We haven't done that in these two games, and that's why we haven't won."
As per the updates, between the sixth and sixteenth overs, India failed to hit a single four. Once again, Kohli got stuck against spin, his strike rate against slow bowlers is 102 over the last one-and-a-half years.
Rohit got a reprieve in the first ball he faced. The Indian T20I team's captain-designate failed to capitalize on that and got out playing a loose stroke. Kohli chose to slog-sweep a dipping leg-break from spinner Ish Sodhi that was well outside off. Rishabh Pant's across-the-line swipe off Adam Milne wasn't a prudent call, either.
According to reports, the Pandya selection, too, came back to haunt India. After a long hiatus, and despite a serious question mark over his bowling fitness, the all-rounder rolled his arm over in a competitive game, looking pedestrian in the two overs he bowled. Stubbornness over the No. 4 batting position cost India 2019, 50-over World Cup. The Pandya stand has forced India very close to the exit door here.
Also, why veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was brought back to the T20 fold to warm the bench through this tournament has been anybody's guess.
However, the Indian players came to this tournament battle-ready, on the heels of the IPL. Almost all the players in the squad were marquee signings for their respective IPL teams. And yet, a country that boasts the game's most high-profile T20 league fizzled at the World Cup. A team with a jumbo coaching staff couldn't get their planning right.
It now has to be asked if M S Dhoni's induction as the team mentor was surplus to requirement and undermined Kohli's authority as captain. In the end, after two matches at the T20 World Cup, India is yet to open their account and their net run-rate is minus 1.60, stated a report from The Indian Express.
