T20 World Cup-winning favorite contender India to face a must-win game against New Zealand

When India won both their warm-up matches quite convincingly against strong teams like England and Australia and they were favorites to win their opening match against arch-rivals Pakistan due to their impressive past world cup records against them but the result didn’t go in their favor as Men in Green defeated title contenders India by 10 wickets.

With this massive defeat against Pakistan, the Indian team is in the doldrums at the moment and their net run rate has been dropped significantly and they need to win their remaining matches to qualify for the semifinal round of the T20 World Cup 2021.

It would not be easy for Men in Blue to register a win against the Black Caps as the latter gave tough time to Pakistan in their opening match at Sharjah despite scoring 135 runs on the board.

India has to field their best playing X1 against Black Caps and learn from the mistakes that they have committed against Pakistan. Hardik Pandya’s role should be clearly defined by team management as based on his current form he is not having enough firepower in his armory to play big innings with willow and with him not bowling someone like Shardul Thakur can clearly step in who can bat at lower order and score some quick runs and provide quick wickets in the crunch moments of the game.

Someone like Ishan Kishan who is in good form should be given an opportunity to open innings with Rohit Sharma and Rahul being a versatile batsman can easily bat at the number 4^th spot which will add more flexibility in the Indian squad.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is clearly not in form and if India includes Shardul Thakur and Ashwin in the second match in place of Varun Chakravarthy then it will completely change the dynamics of this national side. India will be next locking horns against New Zealand in Dubai on 31st October 2021 followed by the match against Afghanistan, Scotland, and Namibia.