“Same story different year” – India slammed by England in T20 WC Semi-Finals

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Same story different year - India slammed by England in T20 WC Semi-Finals

The drought is still not over for the Men in Blues as England chased down a total of 168 without losing a single wicket. For the second time in two consecutive years, India failed to pick a single wicket and leaked runs after runs to crash out from yet another ICC event.

During the last edition held at UAE, India suffered a same type of a loss against arch rivals Pakistan. In the next fixture they lost against New Zealand and India’s hopes of reaching the Semi-finals were eventually crushed. However, in this edition, India did perform better than last year.

It was great to see Virat Kohli coming back to his usual template as he scored 4 fifties this year. He also overtook Mahela Jayawardene as the leading run scorer of the ICC T20 World cup and became the first batsmen in the history of the shortest format to reach 4000 runs.

However, his ultimate goal of bringing India an International trophy as a key participant is still under examination. India has reached the 2014 T20 World Cup final, the 2015 50-over World Cup Semi-final, the 2016 T20 World Cup Semi-final, the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final, the 2019 50-over World Cup Semi-final, and this year’s semi-final since 2013. All of their runs to the finals and semi-finals had one thing in common: they all ended in defeat.

A lot was expected from team India this year but it was during the crunch moment where they lost it all. The nervy situation is what the team has been failing to cope up with. In one of the articles before, we spoke about the mental conditions of the players and the restless schedule that the players go through.

Before the ICC T20 world cup, India played the Asia Cup followed by T20I series against Australia and South Africa. They performed well at home conditions but winning the World cup overshadows every past mistake as well as success in home soil.

KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma’s underwhelming performances while opening for India has a lot to do with their disappointing exit from the world cup. The former blasted runs against the weakest sides while Captain Rohit Sharma looked like a shadow of his old self.

Suryakumar Yadav was the brightest prospect other than Kohli as he played some power packed innings against Netherlands, South Africa, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. But he also came under huge pressure during the Semi-final against England as he got out while playing one of his favorite shots over the covers.

Hardik Pandya with the Bat was monumental during India’s clash against Pakistan and even in the Semi-finals but Pandya with the ball did prove costly. He went for 34 runs in the Semis and 30 against Pakistan. Axar Patel was filling the void left by Ravindra Jadeja but it is very clear why Jaddu is the best all-rounder in India.

The bowling unit of Mohammad Shami, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh leaked a lot of runs. Shami and Kumar in particular were the most experienced bowlers but they picked terrible line and length in the semi-final against England.

Jasprit Bumrah’s absence was always going to come back and haunt team India and that’s what exactly happened. With the 50-over ICC World cup set to take place next year and for the first time since 2011, India will host the tournament. The last 3 champions of the 50-over World cup were the host nation. Can India secure an International trophy next year?

Also Read – What’s not working with Rohit Sharma in this edition of T20 World Cup 2022?

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