Last Updated on 2 years by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: 3 reasons why India were thrashed in semi-final vs England | Why did India lose so badly to England?
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India’s long wait to win an ICC trophy continued as the team was knocked out of the T20 World Cup 2022 following their horrid performance against England in the semi-final. Now, India have lost the last four World Cup semi-finals they have played in – two apiece in T20s and ODIs – after being battered by 10 wickets in Adelaide.
Dreadful, substandard, humiliating and dismal. One can’t be short of adjectives to describe India’s exit from the showpiece event. It’s not only about their defeat in ‘yet another knockout game’ but it’s about the way they lost the game. A 10-wicket defeat in any form of the game is just not acceptable. ‘Favourites’ India were cornered in a crunch game and the way Rohit Sharma’s men played, they certainly didn’t deserve to advance to the final.
3 reasons why India lost so badly to England
Credit where it’s due. The England batters won this game more than India lost it. Keeping all the emotions aside from another disappointing campaign for India, we look at the three major reasons behind India’s loss to England.
1. Poor start in the powerplay with bat and ball
Be it bat or ball, the powerplay overs more often than not decide the outcome of the game. India’s loss can be pinpointed by how they fared in the opening six.
England hammered the Indian bowlers from ball one to reach 63/0 at the end of the powerplay. Despite possessing a formidable batting line-up on paper, India’s constant problem of not getting a quick start in the tournament came back to bite them again when they made just 38/1 in their opening phase.
Jos Buttler’s side has been known for playing an aggressive brand of cricket. England didn’t change anything and they went about their run chase in the same fashion.
On the other hand, India opted to play with the same old template of playing it safe at the start. Then, with the ball, India began by giving a flurry of boundaries and could never recover from the barrage they faced, eventually capitulating under pressure.
2. Questionable decision-making from Rohit Sharma
In the past editions of the World Cup, we’ve seen how big a role a captain can play in the success of their team. Daren Sammy, the most successful captain in the history of the T20 World Cup, didn’t do much as a player in the 2016 edition. But he was always switched on as a captain.
Rohit Sharma came in with a mandate to transform the T20I team. He has been a great tactical captain and five IPL trophies supports that statement. However, against a top side, when the occasion was big, Rohit failed to deliver with the bat and as a captain.
Post the defeat, Team India captain Rohit Sharma laid the blame on the bowlers by saying that they were not up to the mark with the ball and couldn’t turn up on the match day. His remarks were correct to some extent. However, that cannot hide Rohit’s mistakes as a captain. He was under tremendous pressure due to his shambolic performances with the bat throughout the tournament. His poor run of form continued in the semi-final as well.
But more than his batting, it was his clueless captaincy that was one of the reasons why India surrendered to England. When the England openers caught Rohit off guard by starting their onslaught right from the first ball, the Indian skipper went into a defensive shell.
2.1) Strange strategy to bring keeper up against Buttler:
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has Buttler’s number in T20Is, was getting some swing in the first over. However, he was asked to bowl at Buttler with the keeper standing up to the stumps, thus restricting his ability to do what he is known for. This was a strange move because Bhuvneshwar never tried this plan before and still he had dismissed Buttler five times in T20Is.
2.2) Arshdeep Singh not getting an extra over inside the first six overs:
India’s best bowler in the tournament, Arshdeep Singh, bowled the second over of the second innings. Like Bhuvneshwar, he got some swing with the new ball. Despite having an excellent record with the new ball, the left-arm pacer only bowled one over in the powerplay. It was a blunder not to give your best bowler another over especially when the opposition was on the attack.
2.3) Defensive Field placements:
After the first over, Rohit decided to place a fielder at a deep point position that allowed easy rotation of strike. The slip fielder was removed and that gave a signal to the opposition team that the team was on backfoot. He lacked the attacking mindset and that reflected in his decisions.
3. Reluctance to play Yuzvendra Chahal
Yuzvendra Chahal has inarguably been India’s best spinner in T20 cricket. His numbers reflect his success in the format. To everyone’s surprise, Chahal did not play a single game in the T20 World Cup. He was overlooked last year and despite being in the squad, he was ignored by the management.
Ironically, Chahal has featured more prominently for India in T20Is this year. So for him to be overlooked at the T20 World Cup remains a mystery. The fact that he persisted with more of a defensive option in Ravichandran Ashwin instead of an attacking leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal showed how conservative India was throughout the tournament.
Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone slowed things up for India in the middle overs. The question again arises that if Rashid and Livingstone could show their tricks on the pitch, then Chahal too could have been effective against the marauding opening pair of England, who toyed with the Indian attack.
The leg-spinner has a brilliant record against England, who have traditionally struggled to pick the multiple variations he has up his sleeve. Against England, Chahal has picked up 16 wickets in 11 T20Is at an impressive strike rate of 15.7 balls and an average of 21.12 runs per wicket.
Notably, Chahal has also recorded his T20 career’s best figures of (4-0-25-6) against them. In all fairness, not only against England, but India misses the services of their wicket-taker in the middle-over throughout the tournament.
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