Of wisecracks, turning tracks and gambles: India's World T20 journey

Gambling with the inexperience of youth – was it necessary in the penultimate stage?

T20 cricket is not all about style and short balls, Mr. Pandya

Hardik Pandya is an IPL find, along with Jasprit Bumrah. But while the latter redeemed himself with near-immaculate bowling at the death, the former has let inexperience get the better of him at crucial stages of the tournament.

The Baroda all-rounder is more of a backup seam bowling option than a frontline pacer. But his penchant for bowling short deliveries (at just the right length) to batsmen towards the end of the innings hurt India more often than not.

Against Bangladesh, the hotshot youngster got away with such directionless bowling. But on a pitch favouring batters, against the likes of Simmons and Russell, he was pedestrian, to put it mildly. Attempted yorkers turned into full tosses, length balls were deposited into the stands or dispatched to the fence – you name it, Pandya suffered from it.

This is where India lost the plot. It was a gamble from Dhoni, and it didn’t come off. If anything, it exposed a frailty in the hitherto handy bowling attack that the Caribbeans took full advantage of in the slog overs. The idea is to vary the pace, and pitch it up to the batsmen, while using the short ball sparingly. Pandya would do well to remember that.