Now, the Indian team's lack of success in any of these tournaments — the 2019 ODI World Cup, the 2021 T20 World Cup, or the 2022 T20 World Cup — continues to haunt the entire team and now the entire nation.
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However, sports fans may be wondering what exactly went wrong for the Indian side? Lets us look at the key factors which became responsible for India's downfall in the 2022 T20 World Cup:
Rohit Sharma's promise of playing “fearless cricket" remained just on paper:
A new template of “fearless cricket" was created when skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid made a new team. Though few successes in the bilateral series, but for the ICC events, the squad could not perform on the field. According to stats, India's run-rate in the powerplay in this World Cup were just ahead of Netherlands (5.4) and Zimbabwe (5.7) with a run rate of just 6.0. This reflected India's conservative cricket which costed them the cup.
Not playing wrist spinner in Australian conditions:
For the Mega-event, India though invested heavily on Yuzvendra Chahal, but went on with a defensive approach of selecting Ashwin. India competed in six matches of T20 World Cup 2022, five of which were in the Super 12s and one in the semifinals. Chahal -- only wrist spinner in the 15-man team -- was not used in any of these matches. Both Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin were the targets of persistent coaching. As per stats, wrist spinners have historically proven to be viable options for taking wickets in T20 cricket.
Lack of courage to drop non-performing players:
Despite having a commendable bench strength, India continued to carry liabilities in this T20 World Cup. KL Rahul's performance in past one year raised serious questions over his selection as likes of Sanju Samson were not picked. Bhuvneshwar Kumar's bowling was a disaster since last one year, despite that, he played in the playing eleven. bowlers like Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umran Malik were not picked citing lack of experience. If experience was the only basis for selection, we could have asked the greats of Zaheer Khan, Aashish Nehra to play in the World Cup.
Lack of pace and pacers in the bowling attack:
India did miss Jasprit Bumrah during the tournament. His injury played like a dent in the bowling side of the Indian squad. Though Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar did try their best, but were not at their best. Even Bumrah's replacement Mohd Shami was could not prove to be that economical.
An aged team of tired minds and juggled thinkers playing conservative Cricket
India's worst decision was to rely too much on the star and ageing players. Virat Kohli (34), Rohit Sharma (35), Suryakumar Yadav (32), Dinesh Karthik (37) and the list goes on. Though the players did perform, but the overdependence on these players, somehow gave an extra inch to the opposition teams. Apart from Kohli and Yadav, hardly any player matched to the classic they are known for.
