India in T20: From champions to nowhere

December 11, 2009 at 9:43 am · By staff

Nagpur thrashing was just the latest in a series of embarrassing losses.

New Delhi: The thrashing in Nagpur was just the latest in a series of embarrassing losses in T20 cricket for the Indian team in recent times.

Many wonder why is it that the same players who do so well for their IPL franchises, fail badly when they come together as a unit under the India crest.

For the team management and their millions of fans and the players themselves, this question must surely lead to plenty of scratching of heads.

Why is it that when these players don their T20 uniforms for India, the wheels come off, as they did so dramatically in Nagpur on Wednesday.

“We tend to use these as warm-ups for ODIs” is what was Dhoni’s reply to their poor performance in the first Twenty20 International against Sri Lanka.

Over the last two years, India have lost seven of their ten T20 Internationals – a dismal record for a team brimming with superstars and obvious talent.

This year in particular has been abysmal. Starting with two games in New Zealand where the hosts decisively outplayed India to kick the tour off. And then came the lowest point, failing to defend their World T20 title.

Starting the second round by crumbling to the West Indies by seven wickets, going on to be outplayed by England at Lord’s, to be knocked out of the tournament.

And then failing to even pick up a consolation win against South Africa, losing by 12 runs.

So what are the problem areas in the game’s shortest format for this team?

The bowling for one seems to fail too often to stop opposition batsmen when they strike form. In Nagpur for instance, two of India’s bowlers Ashish Nehra and Yusuf Pathan went for more than 50 runs apiece in their four over spells.

Some of India’s pedigreed batting superstars haven’t quite taken to T20 cricket. Virender Sehwag for example, has made just one half century in his 13 T20 innings. And in Nagpur through away a promising start as he has often done in the past.

And then there is the fielding that fails spectacularly when put under the hammer too often.

The skipper no wonder, is left wondering just what can be done to stem the rot.

Source:CNN-IBN

Any content appearing in this site may be Gossip. Indianshangout.com does not comply with the same.