India's exit from the World T20 - Was it more than just bad luck?

As the curtain comes down on India’s T20 World cup campaign, most followers of the Indian cricket team would feel that India were unlucky to have not made it to the semi finals despite beating three top teams – England, Pakistan and South Africa. In his post match conference after the match, skipper MS Dhoni blamed the Australia drubbing down to the rain break which made the outfield wet, and argued that his team had performed admirably in all the other matches.

This exposes a definite glitch in the tournament format as teams should have definitely carried points from the league stages into the Super-8 (At least for the games against the other qualifying team from their group). This loophole in the tournament format meant that India’s big win against England in the group stage meant nothing, but their big loss against Australia was bad enough to knock them out on net run-rate. Consider these two results from the group stages: Pakistan beat New Zealand (the other qualifying team from their group) by 13 runs. In another game, Australia while chasing 191 against West Indies won by 17 runs on D/L. Both these wins were by a much narrower margin as compared to India’s 90 run win over England, and had it been accounted in the NRR, which it should have because England did qualify for the Super-8, India would have definitely made the cut to the semi finals.

But while Dhoni has blamed the rain as the reason for India’s hammering to Australia, and will definitely use the above reason to explain his team’s failure to reach the semis, does this imply that it was only bad luck and bad tournament planning from the ICC that conspired to keep India out? Giving such an excuse would only mean ‘scratching the surface’.

All of us who have been watching cricket over the years understand that teams can have good days and bad days, that teams can be strong or weak, and individual players can have good or bad tournaments. That said, one would expect the captain to lead from the front and the players to come up with their last ounce of effort to do what is necessary for their team to progress. The situation that India found itself in after the Super-8 game between Pakistan and Australia required desperate measures. India were to win by at least 30-odd runs or make the required target in 16 overs or so. This meant that either the batsman batted explosively or the bowlers wreak havoc at the opposition batsman or both. Unfortunately, India could do neither of them.

After seeing Pakistan bowl 17 overs of spin against Australia with great results, one wondered why Dhoni decided to not go for Harbhajan on a turning pitch against a South African side who are historically as bad at playing spin as England. Having not picked Harbhajan, Dhoni decided to hold back Ashwin for the slog overs when the chance for qualification was already over. Ashwin was given only one over in the first 13 (he was brought in the 9^th over).

After losing early wickets, the counter attacking Faf Du Plessis must have been jumping with joy to see Rohit Sharma coming on to bowl ahead of Ashwin. Even after Faf Du plessis fell, Dhoni didn’t try to apply pressure by having more fielders in the circle. It seemed as if after the loss of the toss and subsequently the low total, he had resigned to the fact that winning the match was the best the team could do and that qualification was out of the question. The victory did come in the end but it did little other than improving Dhoni’s win-loss record as a captain and giving him a sufficient alibi for not qualifying for the semis.

While Dhoni’s defensiveness hurt India in the field, their chances of posting a big total were crippled first by early wickets and then by Rohit Sharma’s insistence to not try and improve the run-rate. After having decided not to play the extra spinner and having lost the toss, the Indian team would have, without a doubt, come up with a target in mind that would allow them a chance of getting a 30-run win. I guess most people would feel that with India’s thin bowling line-up, a minimum of 165-170 was required to have a realistic chance of winning and qualifying for the semis. That would mean being aggressive all through the course of the innings, whether or not wickets kept falling.

Consolidating at 36 for 3 would have been a great idea had this been a normal game. Unfortunately, it wasn’t and that fact was well understood by Yuvraj and Raina who kept going for the bowling irrespective of the wickets falling around them. Rohit (who made 25 of 27) seemed to be content to knock the ball for singles and hardly made any attempts to hit attacking shots during his stay on the crease. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he had been trying and was unable to hit the boundaries; what was depressing as a viewer was that all he seemed to care about was playing an average innings that would let him have his place in the side.

While Virat Kohli has been the shining light for the team in all three formats and Yuvraj’s comeback to limited overs cricket has been heartening, there isn’t much to keep the Indian cricket follower happy or optimistic. After the World Cup win, our test results have been abysmal. In limited-overs cricket, we have won no multi team tournament (lost the CB series, Asia cup and now knocked out in the T20 world cup) in the last year. The focus has shifted from winning games to milestones like 100 hundreds, the retirement of legends, the much awaited retirement of ‘God’, internal team politics, selection debates, IPL, Champions League and convenient excuses to explain losses.

No wonder MS Dhoni is sounding more and more like Mohammed Azharuddin when he clamors for turning pitches for the upcoming home test series’. He knows that a thrashing at home could be the final nail in the coffin – both for his captaincy and his lucrative endorsement contracts.