Stop being unconventional, be responsible instead!

Unconventional is one of the first words people associated with the shortest format of international cricket, i.e., T20s. It is the essence of the format and how players think they should play and captains think they should strategize. But, sometimes overdoing something does land one in a soup, as has been the case with India.

The fourth World T20 has reached the semifinal stage, and two of the former champions will not be a part of it. The other champion however has managed to reach the semifinals in each edition without fail, and is poised to lift the cup again. The tournament saw the Kiwis ending on the wrong side of two super overs, Sangakkara coming out for the toss for Sri Lanka to help Jayawardene avoid getting banned for slow over rate, and the Aussies playing it safe by not going for the win against Pakistan.

Of the teams who have made their way to Colombo International Airport sooner than they would have liked, England is one team who lost the World T20 as a result of not selecting their best squad for the tournament. Their best batsman was commentating on the sidelines, while the English XI played with at least 3-4 wicketkeeper batsmen in each match and struggled to put up a convincing show. However, there is one characteristic that is shared by SA, NZ and India, all of whom didn’t manage to go past the Super Eights stage.

South Africa was considered to be one of the strongest outfits this time round. With the experienced Kallis, fresh after helping KKR win the IPL, the pace of Steyn and Morkel and the captaincy of AB de Villiers, there was not much going against them. However, as it stands they are the one team who exited without even coming close to winning a single Super Eight game. To top it all, Gary Kirsten maintained his record of never winning a Super Eight game in the three editions that he has been a coach. Except for the last encounter against India, which was a dead-rubber for SA, their captain simply did not give himself enough overs to bat and leave an impact on the game. AB had been treated similarly at RCB which didn’t help their cause either. Also, the decision to bowl Albie Morkel ahead of Botha and Duminy against Pakistan was highly questionable.

New Zealand have for long played the underdogs role in world cricket. Alongside the Windies, they are one side which has not played to its potential in world tournaments. This time round, Vettori came back from retirement, Brendon McCullum promised a lot, Southee bowled some good spells, but their captain simply didn’t deliver! Ross Taylor batted too far down the order and when he did get the chance, he simply didn’t kick off. Against the West Indies, he failed to finish the match with 3 needed of 2 balls, and failed to capitalize on a start against the English. Like AB, he too was guilty of not being able to strategise well enough.

Coming to India’s ouster, many of us would love to agree with Dhoni, who said that we just had one bad match against the Aussies and were unlucky not to make the semis. Let us stop lying to ourselves! India’s bowling stood exposed against Afghanistan, and we were lucky to scrape past them.

We all know that the squad that represented India in the World T20 was not the best 15. Falling back on Piyush Chawla time and again for world tournaments defies logic, while the extended run for Rohit Sharma managed to keep Sehwag out of the XI and India out of the semis. Balaji is definitely not among the top three seam bowlers in India. If not now, when will be the right time for the BCCI and the selection panel to take some brave and smart decisions? Playing the domestic ODI Challenger trophy on flat pitches at Rajkot is not going to help anyone.

Yes, India did win the World T20 in 2007 with some daredevil decision-making by Dhoni. Everything he touched turned gold. But his decisions in this tournament have stopped making sense. Especially the decision to bat himself at number 7 against SA when India needed to set a huge target to keep their hopes alive, and to bowl Rohit Sharma ahead of Ashwin. Surely, Dhoni should have known more about Faf du Plessis, his CSK teammate! And let us not even get started on the decision to play Irfan at the top of the order.

We are gradually going back to the times when the Indian batting was a one man show, with only a change in personnel (Virat Kohli, much like Sachin earlier). The point I want to make is simple – Being un-conventional is required by the dynamic nature of the T20 format; but if that comes at the expense of being responsible or leading from the front, it simply won’t yield results.

The World T20 has seen some lackadaisical captaincy from very talented individuals. Hopefully, they will learn their lessons soon!