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The India cricket team has been on a strong-willed mission since the conclusion of the ICC World Cup 2019. The tournament in England signaled the end of a critical phase for the Virat Kohli-led unit, where they were left agonizingly short of claiming a title that they were deemed to be one of the favorites for. Much has been pondered upon the fallacies committed by the team management in that competition, so it makes little sense to chart that path yet again.

However, it needs to be noted that the journey since the tour to Caribbean in August 2019 had been focused towards forming a team that could clinch the titles in the two World T20s from 2021. There have been calls from several quarters to adopt an all-out, expansively aggressive approach towards the shortest format of the game. Such desires cannot always be fulfilled, primarily because the cricket that a country plays has some resemblance towards the nature of the people of that nation.

Indians usually come across as a bunch of individuals who prefer a safety-first perspective towards life.

They aspire to have a firm control over the activities that they are engaged in, and at times detest the free-wheeling attitude that must be prevalent in people belonging to other regions. There is arguably nothing wrong in that, as behavior of a group of persons is determined by several socio-economic factors that could be studied in detail for whichever province one wishes to indulge into.

The point we are trying to make over here is that one cannot expect the Indian team to completely surrender the thought process that has taken them ahead for so long, so much. It will be a gradual evolution whenever it happens, just like it has been over the years. No amount of exaggerated hullabaloo will compel the management to radically disrupt the whole mentality and the play-say the way the Windies do.

However, one can expect some improvement after a thorough assessment of the performances from the past. It is integral to not fall into traps that one has succumbed to previously. Refraining from doing so demonstrates a leader’s captaincy mettle, as making mistakes aren’t uncommon. But, it is the tendency to identify those errors and totally sideline it from the one’s approach thereafter that separate the special character from an ordinary one.

And, you require such unusual, exceptional men in-charge to triumph over the big tournaments. With regards to the World T20 though, a postponement has been confirmed. Talks have been doing the rounds for long, and it seemed only be a matter of time before an official announcement was made.

Dissecting India’s T20I record since CWC 2019

In 19 T20Is played after World Cup 2019, India has emerged victorious in 15 of those games. They have lost thrice: once each against South Africa, Bangladesh and West Indies, whereas one of the games against Sri Lanka couldn’t bear any result. Two matches out of these 19 had initially ended in a tie, but India sailed through towards a victory in the super over. On the other hand, the nature of the contests that they have competed in should be taken into consideration too.

The Indian team was initially slated to play 34-36 T20Is in a span of almost 14 months to prepare for the World T20 that was originally scheduled for October, 2020. It is a tremendously laid out plan of action to ensure that no stone is unturned in the process of formulating the team for a major tournament; especially when one started off on a new note more or less.

If one looks at the opposition that India encountered, it paints an intriguing picture. Kohli’s men faced the world champions West Indies in six T20Is. They won five of them, which is an encouraging sign. However, it needs to be noted that the men from Caribbean seemed to be utterly below-par in all of the contests. The pitches on offer in the tour to USA and then the West Indies were unpleasant, excruciatingly slow and gave result to extremely underwhelming encounters.

The Indian side rolled over the Bangladeshis after suffering a shock defeat in the first match, perhaps due to their own complacency. The series against Sri Lanka was a one-sided affair too. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be a long shot to claim that the series’ that they had indulged prior to the tour to New Zealand were relatively easier rides for the team. It isn’t an attempt to brush off the Indian team’s victories, but a deeper observation will solidify the notion the Kohli’s side doesn’t lose much in the buildup to the tournament.

This is because there is little doubt of the quality that is present in the team. However, the fact that has hit them severely in recent times during critical stages of a major tournament is the inability to polish off a major weakness, the underbelly of the batting order. Hence, the way in which India proceeds towards a World Cup should arguably be assessed in the manner in which they polish off their drawbacks and not merely by the number of victories that they have acquired.

The Indian middle order hardly had opportunities to bat for enough deliveries and combat difficult scenarios as the team progressed to the 2019 World Cup. It was attributed to the overwhelming excellence of the top-order. Kohli seemed to have taken notice of it and hence the Indian captain has not batted in his coveted number three spot in eight of the 19 T20Is played since August 2019.

Instead, the likes of Shivam Dube, Shreyas Iyer and even Rishabh Pant were promoted to the one drop slot, whereas Rohit Sharma batted there in the fifth T20I against New Zealand in order to allow Sanju Samson to open the batting with KL Rahul. In fact, a rotational policy was adopted due to which Kohli sat out of the series against Bangladesh and the vice-captain was rested against Sri Lanka in order to provide adequate opportunities to the other batsmen on the bench.

What has the team gained out of it?

Bharath Ramaraj, a sub-editor from Cricbuzz stated, “Maybe the team should focus on middle order slots. (Shreyas) Iyer, (Manish) Pandey, (Shivam)Dube, (Hardik) Pandya, (Rishabh) Pant. Of course, a couple are certainties of they are fit. But what about Dube? He failed in NZ. What about Dinesh (Karthik)? Is his career over? What about Pant… And then think of perhaps (Ravindra) Jadeja and (Shikhar) Dhawan’s positions.”

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Discussing Manish Pandey

Manish Pandey is one of the players to have surprisingly sprung up because of his encouraging outings in recent times. The 30-year-old has played 10 matches out of the 19-game spell that we have taken into consideration. Credit where it’s due, Pandey has played quite a few very impactful knocks in this time span. His unbeaten knock of 50 runs propelled the Indian side to progress ahead from 88/6 in the 12^th over to 165/8 and eventually procure a victory.

However a case could be made for the fact that he is batting a couple of positions too low in the order. This is reflected in some of Pandey’s impressive short bursts so far: 11* and 14* of four and six deliveries respectively against the Kiwis, 31* of 18 against Sri Lanka and 22* of 13 against Bangladesh.

These numbers might appear miniscule at first, but having notched them in the dying stages of the innings whilst batting at number six infuses major influence in the innings. Such knocks often turn out to be decisive factor at the end of a T20 match. Pandey has recorded a strike rate of 145.68 in 10 games since the post-WC 2019 period.

In fact, he played all the three games in the tour to Caribbean in August 2019. As stated earlier, that series had put forth slow and sluggish pitches with the average first innings total being 136 runs. To his credit, Pandey has racked up these numbers after playing those three games and not the series’ against South Africa and Bangladesh at home which provided favorable batting conditions and the average first innings total was 151.6 runs in those five games.

If we remove the tally of the tour to Caribbean from Pandey’s tally, his strike rate in this period shoots up to an excellent 161.36 in seven games since the conclusion of the 2019 World Cup.

Manish Pandey doesn’t boast an excellent T20 record, but a difference of +18.06 in his scoring rate in T20Is between the pre and post-World Cup 2019 period suggests that he has added new dynamism to his approach and is arguably an experiment that has worked well so far for the Indian team management.

Being comfortable against pace and spin alike, Pandey could be touted to succeed against the tougher sides like England and Australia whom India were initially supposed to play for a combined six T20Is before the World T20.

Discussing Washington Sundar

Another experiment tried out was inducting Washington Sundar into the setup. He was given the mantle of opening the bowling and to be fair, the lad did a decent job as his innate disciplined line and length ensures that he isn’t taken for cleaners in the field restriction overs. In 15 T20Is that the off-spinner has played since the conclusion of the World Cup 2019, Sundar has recorded an economy rate of 6.88 in 52 overs. Considering the overs that he has operated in, it’s quite a commendable statistic.

Furthermore, the 20-year-old’s progressive economy rate has never exceeded beyond 6.95 in the 22 T20Is that he has bowled in. It demonstrates that the lad has been consistent with his most formidable strength, i.e. the ability to hold an end up with persistently disciplined efforts. Interestingly, his ER reached 6.95 in the fourth T20I which one of the few instances in which Sundar wasn’t provided the new ball to open the bowling.

Hence, one wonders whether the player’s strengths are too limited for him to become a mainstay in the shortest format of the game. Sundar’s batting style is more classical, which could arguably be optimized if he opens the batting and attains an opportunity to make use of the field restriction overs. However, given the plethora of talent that is prevalent in the top-order for India, opening the batting with the all-rounder is simply not an alternative.

Secondly, he has notched merely nine wickets in 15 innings. His bowling strike rate of 24 indicates that Sundar bags a dismissal per game, and does so whilst conceding 27.74 runs.

These are fairly good numbers, but a frontline bowling option should be inducing a rather wicket-taking dynamic into the game. Otherwise, the maverick T20 batsmen could in all probabilities eventually find a way to take on conventional off-spinners as per their whim and fancy. Hence, it puts forth an issue to ponder upon whenever the final preparations for the imminent World T20 resumes.

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Discussing Shardul Thakur

Shardul Thakur’s name propped up only in the series against Sri Lanka in January this year. The pacer faces a tremendous amount of backlash but the team management has trusted in him by inducting the lad in all five T20Is against the Kiwis. Thakur isn’t your ferociously incisive quick bowler, or a sure-shot bet for the death overs. Yet, the CSK player has managed to scalp wickets at a regular rate.

The 28-year-old has bagged 13 wickets in seven matches since his return to T20Is in January 2020. His economy rate has been rather decent: 8.65 in 23 overs this year. Batting depth has been a debate that has invited radical opinions from all quarters, with some vouching for it whilst the others blatantly calling it a fallacy. However, Thakur knows a thing or two about wielding his willow and has yielded productive results in T20Is through it.

In the third T20I against Sri Lanka in Pune in January, Thakur arrived to bat with two balls to spare in the 17^th over and India’s score being 164/6 after having lost Kohli and Sundar in successive deliveries. The former RPSG player whacked his way to a knock of 22 runs in eight deliveries and added 39 runs combined to the team total along with Manish Pandey in the last 20 deliveries of the innings.

Then in the fourth T20I in front of New Zealand, Thakur again joined Pandey at a precarious situation on the crease. The team was stuck at 88/6 with three deliveries remaining in the 12^th over itself. The fast-bowler weathered the collapse by sticking around for another five overs, adding 20 runs to his individual tally in 15 balls. The team’s total had increased by 43 runs in the time being and stimulated the setup to further shoot up to 165 runs from a position where achieving such a target looked implausible nine overs ago.

The Indian team emerged victorious in both these encounters. In addition to his exploits with the bat, Shardul further contributed by claiming four wickets in seven overs with an economy rate of 7.42 in these two matches. Those four scalps included the two extremely critical wickets in the final over against New Zealand of Ross Taylor and Daryl Mitchel that propelled the team to tie the game and eventually win it in the super over. In the game against Sri Lanka, he got rid of Avishka Fernando and Dasun Shanaka, two important cogs of the Lankan lineup.

Shardul Thakur might not be a prodigiously talented pacer but his dogged spirit and ability to come up with such impactful contributions at critical stages of the game are quite noticeable. Such performances tilt the game in one side’s favor in the most important overs of a T20 game and Thakur has enabled that to happen towards India’s advantage since January.

He could arguably not be a starter with the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah or even Deepak Chahar around. However, contrary to the popular opinion, the team management should not be lamented for persisting with Shardul Thakur. He has earned that right.

Nikhil Bapat, a senior scribe who covers the sport extensively from Mumbai remarked, “After the failure to win the 2019 ODI World Cup, India shifted its focus on the 2020 T20 World Cup and accordingly played number of T20s as the format is different. They tried out different combinations, gave chance to youngsters including the likes of Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini among others. With a set team, under Virat Kohli, they are now a force to reckon with.”

Already, plenty of talk has surrounded the likes of Pant, Iyer, the senior Pandya and Jadeja. Hence, to focus on them in this analysis wouldn’t have provided any new perspective. We decided to focus on the trio that we discussed and intricately breakdown their performances in the international T20 matches since the Indian team set on a reboot mission. Kohli and company cannot be faulted towards not experimenting or providing ample opportunities to newbies this time around. Of course, there have been some drawbacks that can be discussed later on.

However, the mindset has been on an appropriate path more or less. The initiation of KL Rahul at the top of the order was long coming and has injected completely new dynamism to the lineup. India have played plenty of T20Is without the services of their coveted stars such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bumrah, Hardik Pandya who have missed matches due to injuries. This provided them an opportunity to widen their viewpoint to an extent and certain unexpected consequences acquired through the same were elaborated upon this article.

Written by Tarkesh Jha. Follow Tarkesh on Twitter today.

Also read:

• Analysis: Who is the best Indian top order batsman in IPL history?
• Why India should be very grateful to have Ajinkya Rahane