5 strategic problems that the Indian T20I team needs to solve now

#2 Lack of acceleration during the middle overs

With Virat Kohli back in the hut early, the Indian middle order has failed to get going

With Virat Kohli departing early in both the T20Is so far, the problem of scoring fast during the middle overs seemed to be an insurmountable one for India. The likes of Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and Manish Pandey have struggled to deliver the goods when it mattered the most.

In T20 cricket, one needs to play a high percentage of risky shots and keep scoring fast to maintain a high run-rate. With bigger bats, smaller grounds and flatter pitches, no target is big enough any longer for the opposition while chasing.

The Indian team in the series has struggled to keep scoring at a healthy rate in the middle overs. Gone are the days when you can rely too heavily on rotating the strike during the middle overs and prepare for a final assault.

The price that the Indian big guns like Raina, Yuvraj and Dhoni put on their wickets often means that they end up playing themselves in rather than going hammer and tongs during the middle overs. That often leads to the run-rate coming down from which India have struggled to recover in the matches so far in the series.