How and when will his woes end on this tour, Mahendra Singh Dhoni might well be asking himself after Wednesday’s T20 match at the Dome in Sydney’s Olympic Park. If the quality of India’s performance is any indication, this could still be some time in coming.

True, for the most T20 cricket is an outright lottery as is evident from the fact that the three World Championships played as yet have produced three different winners. But in the context of this tour, Wednesday’s game was not without significance for Dhoni and his team.

Clobbered 0-4 in the Test series, Dhoni had pinned his hopes on the young legs and lungs that carry a several new faces that have come in for the limited tournament matches that form the second leg of this tour. The shorter format has suited India better in recent times, and so this did not sound like idle boast.

There would be new energy, zeal and certainly much better fielding, Dhoni had promised. This team would sing a different tune, he offered as an analogy: from Kishore Kumar, the had changed to Sean Paul, he had said, only half-jokingly. As it happened, while the orchestra members had changed, the tune remained the same.

The ‘second wind’ the Indian captain was looking for on this tour, gathered no momentum. It was much the same dysfunctional cricket which had been seen in the preceding month.

Even in this massively truncated format, India looked seriously error-prone and just not up the task of stopping an Australian side that is beginning to look increasingly invincible in every format.

In bowling, fielding and batting India were thoroughly outplayed. A 30-run margin of defeat in T20 cricket is almost akin to losing by an innings; and this came against an experimental Australian side led by a debutant captain, George Bailey and included a fair sprinkling of oldies, including Brad Hogg who turns 41 soon.

Hogg bowled his four overs of left-arm spin with great skill and fielded like a man 20 years younger. Players other than Matthew Wade and David Warner to catch the eye included 35-year-old Brett Lee and 34-year-old David Hussey, who put in a splendid all-round performance. So much for age being the sole determinant in selection!

Incidentally, the Australians are also using these matches as a form and skills reckoner for the T20 World Championship scheduled for later in the year in Sri Lanka, and those thought best to win the title are being put through their paces.

So what ails India? The biggest problem on this tour - apart from the fielding which I consider the bane of Indian cricket in any format and which has repeatedly got exposed — has been the failure of the openers to provide a start.

Viru Sehwag’s dismissal in the first over at Sydney left a deep gash on India’s aspirations. Gambhir and Kohli looked secure while they were in the middle, but both fell within minutes of each other to loose shots and when Rohit Sharma was dismissed to the first ball he received, the show was virtually over.

Sehwag’s prodigality hurt India the most in the Tests. While it would be silly to ask him to change his methods, it is also true that his repeated failures have put the remaining batsmen under greater pressure than they would have anticipated.

In a sense, this tells us what an in-form Sehwag has mean to Indian cricket in the past decade — especially in notching up successes, several of them improbable, with his dash and dare. Ironically, dash and dare is what India have lacked all summer.

The pusillanimous approach has left the batting vulnerable and in tatters, so Sehwag still holds the key to success.