India are the most underperforming white-ball team in history. Every player in the world who goes to the Indian Premier League says how it improves their game, but what have India ever delivered?
Since winning the 50-over World Cup on home soil in 2011, what have they done? Nothing. India are playing a white-ball game that is dated, and have done for years.
How they have not maximised someone such as Rishabh Pant is incredible. In this era, put him up the top to launch it. How have they only got five bowling options when you think 10 or 15 years ago all of India’s top six could bowl a little bit — Sachin Tendulkar, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag and even Sourav Ganguly? None of the batsmen bowl, so the captain, Rohit Sharma, has only got five options.
I am just staggered by how they play T20 cricket for the talent they have. They have the players, but just do not have the right process in place. They have to go for it. Why do they give the opposition bowlers the first five overs to bed in?
We know in T20 cricket the stats tell you teams need a spinner who can turn it both ways. India have plenty of leg-spinners. Where are they? They have a left-armer in Arshdeep Singh who swings it back into the right-handers. So what do they do defending 168? They put on Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowling outswing to give Jos Buttler and Alex Hales width. Where is the left-arm seamer swinging it in to Buttler and Hales in the first over?
Madness. Cramp them for room. Do not give them a chance to get off to a flier in the first over and settle nerves.
It is fantastic what India bring to cricket with the IPL and its fans. To see 88,000 at Melbourne for a dead rubber against Zimbabwe was marvellous for the game. But for all the advantages India have, they must win more.
Even in their own backyard, at the 2016 World T20, they did not reach the final. They were nowhere last year. This time, it took an outrageous innings by Virat Kohli, probably the best in T20 of all time, to beat Pakistan in the group stage. They massively underachieve for their skill levels.
It was a wise decision for Buttler to bowl first. I thought it was a big risk because England defend so well, but the reason they did it was because Kohli is a brilliant chaser. They played on his mind by setting him the challenge.
India have to be honest now. What happens when they arrive at a World Cup? Everyone plays them up. Nobody wants to criticise them because you get hammered on social media and pundits worry about losing work in India one day. But it is time to tell it straight. They can hide behind their great players, but it is about getting a team playing the right way as a whole.
Their bowling options are too few, they do not bat deep enough and lack spin tricks. Let us not take away the brilliance of England and the story of Hales — someone who has gone through three years of turmoil and added so much to the 2019 campaign, only to be airbrushed out of English cricket.
I hope he gets redemption in the final and he is the man who wins it for England. Hales is a brilliant white-ball player and Rob Key, the director of cricket, deserves a huge amount of credit for being mature and reasonable about the situation.
The final will mean so much to Pakistan. If Babar Azam lifts the trophy, who knows, he might be prime minister of Pakistan one day.
If you look at England, I worry about them without Mark Wood and Dawid Malan. With Jofra Archer and Bairstow out as well, England have lost a core of their first-choice team.
Semi-finals are generally very tight. But for England to blow India away in that fashion shows how far we have come in white-ball cricket over the past seven years since they were knocked out of the 2015 World Cup. We have depth now.
Buttler has led them so well. I hope he lifts the trophy. He is one of the good guys in the game. What an opportunity he has now.
The Daily Telegraph
