A little over a week into the Super 12s of the T20 World Cup but India are already facing an uncertain future, hanging in there by a thread, depending on other teams to hand them a lifeline.

Afghanistan’s performance, in contrast, has been a testament to their reputation as a viable force in the game’s shortest format: two sweeping victories against Namibia and Scotland followed by a near-win against Pakistan before a certain Asif Ali snatched it away from them.

It will need quite an effort from Virat Kohli’s men, still smarting from crushing losses to Pakistan and New Zealand, to stage a comeback. They will play in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and the dew will again threaten to play havoc for the side bowling second. Teams chasing have won six of the eight matches in Abu Dhabi thus far.

Batting coach Vikram Rathour stressed on the importance of returning to winning ways on Tuesday.

“We need to win first before we get into the (net) run rate part of the equation... at this moment, the focus is to win games,” said Rathour.

India looked jaded, both mentally and physically, and haven’t been able to deliver the fearless brand of cricket which they profusely boast.

Kohli has highlighted two issues that led to the debacle: the batsmen weren’t brave enough and their hesitancy in shot selection. To make it worse, the tinkering of the batting order whereby Ishan Kishan was made to open with KL Rahul on Sunday, has been a catalyst to the disaster. Moving down Rohit Sharma to the No.3 spot had its pitfalls.

Rathour informed that Rohit had been consulted before it was decided to drop him down the order. “Ishan has done really well as an opener in the IPL and for India as well,” said the batting coach. “It’s the whole management who sits together and takes the call. And of course, Rohit is part of that group. So he was part of that discussion... tactically it made sense having an attacking approach.”

India struggled against the spin of Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi in the middle overs and unless they manage to dominate Rashid Khan and Mujeeb-ur Rahman on Wednesday, they will find the going tough again.

There was no decision on whether to play an extra spinner in Ravichandran Ashwin to make the attack look more potent till late on Tuesday. Picking wickets remain the key in the Powerplay overs and Ashwin certainly offers more options. Shardul Thakur hardly looked effective against New Zealand and it would be prudent to try out the world’s best spinner.

India certainly have to come out of their conservative approach if they wish to make it count.