8 months ago
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A new-look Team India, led by Hardik Pandya, received a reality check in the just-concluded T20I series against West Indies. A series that many would have expected to be a walk in the park for the Men in Blue, did not turn out that way. Mostly because of the fact that Indian batters failed to fire in unison, almost throughout the series.
Time and again, experimentation has been a keyword in Team India camp, and it was clear during the T20Is that the team management was doing the same again with the 2024 T20 World Cup scheduled for next summer.
Yet, it’s not the lack of experimentation that is the issue here. It’s the star batters’ failure to fire consistently.
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Take Shubman Gill for example. The 23-year-old, who took IPL 2023 by storm with 890 runs for Gujarat Titans (GT), cast a shadow figure of himself in almost all of the five T20Is, barring his knock of 77 in the fourth T20I in Lauderhill.
Four single-figure scores in five T20Is do not help Gill’s case whatsoever. Add to that, the manner in which he got out in the series-decider in Florida on Sunday will also haunt him for a while.
Akeal Hosein, in the third over of India’s innings, drifted an armball to the leg side as Gill went for the slog sweep and missed. He was given out by the on-field umpire, a decision he would have regretted not reviewing.
Hawkeye later showed that it was in fact missing leg stump, which means Gill would have survived had he opted for the DRS.
Suryakumar Yadav, known for his aggressive flair and someone who is probably the X-factor of this Indian lineup, also let down the team big time, early in the series, when India needed him the most.
SKY batted at number three throughout the series but only rediscovered his magic with the bat in the second half of the series by which India were already 0-2 down.
In the fifth match, SKY played courageously, with a 45-ball knock of 61, but what he lacked on Sunday was support from his partners at the other end. By far, Tilak Varma (27), who was India’s silver lining in the series, was the only one who could provide substantial support to Suryakumar, as the duo shared 49 runs between them.
On a slow pitch on Sunday, Suryakumar tried to stop himself from playing the sweep shot against the spinner after seeing Gill getting dismissed in a similar fashion. And pull shots were out of the option too. Jaiswal had been caught and bowled by Akeal Hosein while looking to pull through midwicket as he did not see the pace of the ball coming.
Suryakumar, however, played the anchor role. He counter-attacked while looking to maintain a steady and healthy strike-rate, and most importantly, he did not let his guard down.
Having come out to bat in the very first over after Jaiswal’s dismissal, SKY finally did justice to his number three position, hanging in there and putting his best foot forward to score a valiant knock. Only if Hardik Pandya (14 off 18 balls) could have supported SKY more from the other end, India would have safely posted a total of 190 or more.
Hardik Pandya’s batting worries
When you have someone like Hardik Pandya in the team, he is expected to finish games. As a skipper, too, Pandya is expected to perform under pressure, but that was not the case on Sunday.
Hardik was far from his usual self in this series, and according to Wasim Jaffer, Hardik looked “rusty” with his batting.
“Well, it has been a concern. He looks little rusty,” the former India cricketer said on ESPNCricinfo.
“Apart from the fifty he scored in the 3rd ODI, where also he started very very slowly, and picked it up in the slog overs. But even then he looked a little rusty,” added Jaffer.
Hardik endured scores of 19, 24, 20* and 14, all of which came under a strike-rate of 150. Safe to say, Hardik failed to pace his innings well and more so in the last match, where his strike-rate was only 77.
In the fifth T20I, Hardik came into bat in the 11th over, with India’s score reading 87/4 after Samson’s dismissal. While he did forge 43 runs partnership with SKY, Hardik failed to stabilize his innings like SKY did.
Hardik did rue his missed opportunity but after the match was over.
“If you see, we lost that period post ten overs since I came (to bat),” he said after the match.
“I think I was not able to capitalise [on] the situation and took my time and was not able to finish. I think the boys really played well. I think, at that period when I went in, I kind of did not play exactly how it was supposed to be,” he added.
Not to forget, it’s not just Hardik’s lack of finishing that has hurt India. Hardik’s tactical blunders had a huge say in India conceding the series. Be it not giving Chahal the opportunity to bowl the 18th over in the second T20I, or Hardik’s decision to bat on a slow Lauderhill surface on Sunday, it’s those game-changing decisions and moments where India lost the series.
Samson’s failure with the bat
After being in and out of the Indian team recently, Sanju Samson had to make his opportunities count in the T20I side. India are a side in transition as far as the shortest format is concerned, and should Samson be a part of that transition, it was paramount that he performs to his best.
However, that was clearly not the case. Samson had scored a fifty in the third ODI almost a fortnight ago, but 14 days is a long time in cricket.
The Kerala batter, no matter what he tried, just could not get into the rhythm of his batting which in turn hurt his consistency.
Against West Indies, Samson endured scores of 12, 7 and 13 in the three T20Is he has batted in, which is far from ideal for a batter who is hoping to seal a spot in the World Cup team.
Simply put, this series has raised more questions regarding Samson’s abilities as an aggressive batter than it has given answers.
Only time will tell where Samson goes on from here, given that this series was the golden opportunity to put all those critics to rest.
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