As we are in the middle of the Twenty20 World Cup Series, let us analyse what is currently the chance of the Indian Team to retain their title this time.
Well, this year whether it is a boon or bane, we had the IPL 2 conducted just before the T20 World Cup. So most of the players got into the mood of T20 before the World Cup began.
This experience gave a new dimension to the Indian Team with players like Rohit Sharma moving up the order, RP Singh among wickets eventually emerging purple cap holder, Suresh raina stabilising the middle order and a lot of part time bowlers at disposal of whom Yuvraj & Rohit had hat-tricks against their names. Anybody who sees this side will be sure that they are tailor-made to be the champions.
With that prelude, we enter into the phase of T20 World cup.
Being the Champions of initial edition of World cup held two years back, India was grouped into a much easier group in the League table with likes of Ireland & Bangladesh.
1st warm up match against New Zealand saw the emergence as Rohit Sharma as a replacement for Sehwag in the opening slot. But still India went on to lose the match.
Note: India has lost all its T20 Encounters against the black caps.
Then, came the warm up match with Pakistan where India tore away the opposition to comfortably win the match.
So as hot favourites, India faced the young Bangladesh team. Remember? Bangladesh initiated the downfall of India in ICC World Cup 2007. With Bangladesh batsmen hastily chasing the runs, it was some clinical spin bowling in the middle that helped India to salvage a victory.
India also beat Ireland to go into Super 8 comfortably but even in this match, the Irish Batsmen scored heavily in the death overs bowled by Indians.
At this stage, we were able to see some negative things which were evident in most of the Indian matches:
- India gave too many runs at the death overs
- Very much dependent on the slower bowlers
- Dhoni's below par batting which reduces the run rate and makes the task to score runs much steeper for forthcoming batsmen
- India yet to face a quality side hence the performance of the team has not actually been tested under demanding situations
But these were not properly addressed and since the opposition were of not a niche quality, it didnt show its magnitude.
To crown it all, the injury of Sehwag was also a kind of blow to the Team.
Once India reached Super 8, it was drawn against West Indies, South Africa & England. 2 out of 3 wins will see them through to semis somehow.
In first Super 8 encounter, India lost to Windies in a big margin.
This match brought most of the problems with the Indian team into limelight.
- Once top order failed & Dhoni's sluggish batting continued, India was looking down to score somewhere around 110 to 120. Thanks to Yuvraj & Yusuf, India got much more.
- Once again the faster bowlers' balls were frequently sent out of the park. India was dependent on spinners but a much experienced side like Windies tackled the guiles of the spinners to a very good extent.
- Dhoni had a lot of bowling options which actually made him not to rotate the bowlers properly.
- Knowing the maraudering nature of Gayle, Team India had plans of taking him. Good. But they concentrated too much on Gayle, so didnt have a proper gameplan to tackle players coming in after Gayle.
- Dhoni missing one important run out chance which if effected could have sent back Bravo home who ultimately settled the match with a good 66.
So now India is in a must win do or die situation against England & South Africa.
Some of the corrections that could be made so as to avoid a humiliating defeat
- Dhoni should bat down the order and promoting Raina to 3rd slot, the position in which the southpaw is very much comfortable in scoring runs.
- Should juggle the main bowlers efficiently & bring in the part time bowlers only when it is very necessary. Some times we could see, very decent performance not utilized properly. For someone like Praveen who bowled a very good initial two overs but still at the end of Innings he s left with an over or two.
- Should have someone to bowl with good variations in the death overs in order to reduce the scoring rate.
- RP Singh could have been given a chance. It really feels odd when your faster bowlers are getting the thrashing but ur purple cap holder of IPL is kept in bench for all the matches.
So today its gonna be the second super 8 match for India against England. So if the above rectifications are done,we could expect India defeating England pretty comfortably.
With matches left with teams like England & South Africa, even a smal error will cost the Men in Blue very dear.
Lets hope they do win the match today against England and then win South Africa in the same fashion as they did in 2007.
It all depends on the "Captain Cool" to revisit and realign the strategies so as to reconcile & validate the loop holes in the Team & administration.
Lets hope for the Best & keep our fingers crossed !
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