A shock home series loss exposes gaps beneath India’s white-ball dominance
Team India has just stepped into a final preparatory series for the T20 World Cup in which it will be defending the title it won in Barbados. The challenge ahead would be to beat the uncertainties of the game that are even more accentuated in its shortest format.
Having established a claim to being the best white ball squad in world cricket, Team India hit a new low when it went down for the first time in a home ODI series to New Zealand for whom seasoned campaigner Daryll Mitchell put up a splendid batting display with two centuries, including a crucial one to set up a winning total in the decider.
Having won the Tests 3-0 in India just a season ago, the Kiwis have been serving up lessons in how combined efforts in the team cause can prove superior to the glamour associated with superstar players of whom the Indian team has many. Putting the team first in lending a shoulder to the yoke is what distinguishes the New Zealanders in sport, especially in cricket. Battling for Team India was the stalwart batsman Virat Kohli who copped a lot of criticism for his Test failures and who proved that class is permanent while form is temporary even as Indian cricket establishment piled pressure on him and Rohit Sharma regarding their eagerness to play the ODI World Cup next year.
K.L. Rahul was another who played a great hand in a chase in the first ODI. There were others like Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana who kept Kohli company in a grand chase in the decider. But where India had lost out in the series was in an inability on the part of the bowlers and fielders to perform to potential as professional sportsmen. They were severely lacking when it came to application of their skills when the task was demanding toughness.
A few eccentric swings in forging game strategy and tactics in a team in which the coach Gambhir seems to have a ‘supremo’ style sway may not have helped matters either. It is clear that Shubman Gill who captains in two formats must be seen exerting his authority more on the field. The response from the top echelon of team management must be better tuned to meet the demands. Mere talent does not win team games despite sparkling individual brilliance.
