Asia

Kohli admitted that the team did not have enough bravery; Batsmen attack too early, says Bumrah

November 1, 2021
Henry Club

India’s defeat in its first two matches in this tournament has been so bad that it sent the meme-makers into overdrive.

Traumatizing Pakistan by 10 wickets last Sunday was going to take a toll on the confidence. A week later, India could manage just 110/7 in 20 overs against New Zealand Kane WilliamsonThe team won with 33 balls to spare.

In the post-match presentation, Kohli spoke of the team’s intimidation. “I don’t think we were brave enough with bat or ball.”

This is the confession of a man who always took pride in playing bold and fearless cricket.

little surprise then Virender Sehwag Slammed the body language of the team. “Very disappointing from India. New Zealand were amazing. India’s body language was not very good, poor shot selection and like in the past, New Zealand have almost made sure that we will not make it to the next stage. This will hurt India and time for some serious introspection,” he tweeted.

Kohli said the team has learned to play under pressure over the years but that was not the case in the T20 World Cup.

He said, ‘When you play for the Indian cricket team, there are a lot of expectations from you. Not just from the fans, but from the players as well. So there will always be more pressure on our game and we have accepted that over the years. Everyone who plays for India has to adopt it. And when you face together as a team you get over it and we haven’t done that in these two matches. Just because you are the Indian team and there are expectations doesn’t mean you start playing differently. I think we are fine, there is a lot of cricket left to play.”

The fact is that if New Zealand defeats Afghanistan, India will soon return home. And even if Afghanistan ends up in an upset, India will have to win their remaining match by a substantial margin to revive their -1.60 run-rate.

The toss is playing a big role in matches in this tournament and Kohli’s toss fortunes probably need divine intervention to turn around.

Nevertheless, he lost the toss, but India’s batting approach, especially against two New Zealand spinners, Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi, left much to be desired. Between these two, both the spinners gave only 32 runs for two wickets. India could not hit a single boundary for 10 overs.

This is how the strike rate of Indian batsmen went: Ishan Kishan 50 KL Rahul 112.50, Rohit Sharma 100, Kohli 52.94, Rishabh Pant 63.15 and finisher Hardik Pandya 95.83. In college Ravindra Jadeja26 not out off 19 balls saved the team from being completely humiliated. It was India’s batting reversal against New Zealand’s spin in their opening game of the 2016 World T20. MS Dhoni’s team made a comeback and entered the semi-finals. Kohli’s side as Dhoni’s mentor is staring down the barrel.

Interestingly, when the Indian spinners bowled, they hardly seemed to make an impact, of course, New Zealand played without scoreboard pressure while India succumbed to Kiwi spin, down to poor shot selection under pressure.

In the post-match press conference, Jasprit Bumrah was asked about India’s batting, and the disappointment eventually morphed into a harsh veneer. “So obviously I thought we wanted to give cushion, and there was talk that we want to give cushion to the bowlers. And it happened.

“So in that I think we went a bit early. And the long boundaries really came into play. He used his slow deliveries where he used the wicket quite well to his advantage and he got big shots for our batsmen. made it difficult to play.

The pacer was quick to defend his teammates. “Since singles were not on offer, they were playing attacking shots. High risk shots were always present. I think that was the gist of what happened today. And that’s for everyone to see.”

Maybe, India batted in the second half keeping the dew factor in mind and decided to throw caution to the wind altogether, trying to break the shackles. Bumrah agreed to some extent.

“I think what we were trying to do as a batting unit is we know that dew is a big factor in the second innings. We tried to give us some cushion.

“We wanted to score extra runs so that we could have an advantage in the second innings. I think in that process we played a lot of attacking shorts, attacking options. He didn’t come out today.”

The team is still heavily dependent on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the big tournament. After a great test series in England, Rohit suddenly lost his mojo, had an average IPL and got out cheaply in the first two matches here. Kohli has been going through a bad phase in all formats for a long time and has a strike-rate of 102 against spin in T20Is in the past year and a half. His fifty against Pakistan came at a strike-rate of 116. Today he scored nine runs in 17 balls. India didn’t help their cause by messing up their batting line-up.

Talking about Indian cricketers, they are constantly moving from one bio-bubble to another bio-bubble and it is not easy for one’s mental health. “Absolutely. Sometimes you need a break. You miss your family sometimes. You have been on the road for six months. So it all plays in your mind sometimes,” Bumrah said.

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