After the debacle of the T20 World Cup, Team India came back stronger in the recently held T20I series against New Zealand. Under the leadership of the new skipper Rohit Sharma and the guidance of the new coach Rahul Dravid, India won the series 3-0. India is showing this dominance in every bilateral series it plays but is fumbling when it comes to the World Cup.
Since 2018, India won all the T20 series that was held at home, except the one against Australia. The sheer dominance didn’t reflect in the World Cup as the team was ousted in the group stage itself. The main reason for India’s exit from the World Cup was batting first.
Unfortunately, India lost the toss against both Pakistan and New Zealand in the World Cup and was asked to bat first. We all know the end results. India is very strong while chasing but batting first has been their nemesis.
Since November 2018, India played 45 T20Is (excluding last night’s game). Out of them, it batted the first 23 times, winning 10 and losing 11 (2 were tied). This win-loss ratio is worse when compared to the chasing statistics. In the 21 T20Is it chased, India won 16. It shows that batting first is the weak point of the team. One can’t win the toss every time to chase. Thus, the team should learn to win either by batting or bowling first.
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Last night, Rohit won the toss and chose to bat. The experiment worked well and India won the game by 73 runs. The team should start taking such risks and make players get used to batting first and persuade them to try winning such games. As there are 11 months left for the 2022 T20 World Cup, Dravid and Rohit should make sure to prepare a balanced side that can be ready to either bat or bowl first.