New Zealand vs India 2019: 4 reasons why India lost the first T20I

#4 Top order failure for India

Rishabh Pant

India relies too much the on top order batting when it comes to limited-overs cricket, which was clearly evident today. The chase master Kohli was not playing, and Rohit Sharma got out very early.

Shikhar Dhawan looked in good touch for a few overs but got out before the power play. India sent Vijay Shankar at number three, who looked really good too but again threw away the wicket.

Once India lost its top order, it was too much to ask from the fragile Indian middle order and they were out of the game even before the 15th over. Dhoni played his part well with 39 runs in 31 balls but it wasn't good enough to chase down the huge total. He was running out of partners as most of the middle order batsmen got out for single-digit scores. In the end, India lost by 80 runs, which is their worst ever T20I defeat in terms of runs.