And so India did lose a game to Pakistan in a cricket world cup encounter. The game that was talked about since a long time. The hype. The pressure. The expectations. The analysis. All of that turned into a one sided Pakistan show. One of the worst defeats for India since the time I started watching the game. If the champions trophy final in 2017 wasn’t enough rubbing for us, take this. You can always talk a lot about a game after it is over and here is my talk about why what happened last night.
The IPL effect.
There are more than one reasons how IPL may have impacted the result yesterday. First and the foremost is that IPL concluded only 10 days ago. The mega event is known to take its toll on the players given how many matches they have to play. In many ways, I felt that BCCI prioritised IPL over the ICC tournament. May be the revenue is a lot more and it made financial sense, but one will question if money is more important than National pride.
Second factor of the IPL is the team bonding. Look at the number of captains in the team – Kohli, Rohit, Rahul, Pant – who played against each other in the IPL. All players played in different colours just until 10 days ago and we did not play a series as a team before the world cup. I’d say it’s gross under preparation for such an important tournament. Compare this with Pakistan, they had enough time to rest, work as a team, build their strategies. Pakistan were so settled that they announced a 12 member team for the game. Whereas for India.. we did not know the playing XI and what is the exact role each player had in the game.
Third is the X factor of Shaheen Afridi. Apart from he being a left arm swinging fast bowler, the fact that Pakistan does not play the IPL meant Indian batsmen were not used to playing him so much. There was lot of talk about him and boy how he impressed! He reminded me of Md Amir from the 2017 finals. Those wickets of Rohit and Rahul said it all.
Squad Selection.
Harsha Bhogle spoke about this in his pre tournament analysis. The balance of the team is a little off if Hardik plays only as a batsman. BCCI did say when they announced the squad that Pandya selection happened only because of his all rounder capabilities and not just as a batsman.
Pandya eventually did not take the field yesterday which meant we had exactly 5 bowlers to bowl. Shami and Bhuvi were off color and we had no where else to look. Compare this with other sides in the tournament – for example Bangladesh and SL used 7 bowlers each in their games… This is great concern for India going forward in the tournament.
Do they pick Shardul in place of Pandya? Will that reduce the batting depth of the team? Should Surya bowl? Krunal Pandya was not in form for sometime and so is not in the squad. Missing a player like Yuvraj Singh for sure! We need more batting all rounders!
Think Tank.
Look at the squad. We have an outgoing coach at the end of the tournament. A mentor who was assigned just for this tournament. A captain who announced that he will step down. Hitman who probably will lead the side after Kohli. Too many dynamics playing here?
I feel that Kohli announced his stepping down a little too early. You don’t want to do it before a big tournament like a WC. It changes everything for the players. There is a sense of uncertainty that looms around the team when you don’t know who is the leader of the team. Do you now listen to Kohli, Rohit, Dhoni or Shashtri? All of them we know have very contrasting strategies and emotions. This could have played a huge role too!
Overconfidence.
If you look at any pre match analysis, everyone spoke as if this would be a walk in the park for India. The on paper sqaud was too strong to beat. India never lost to Pakistan in a WC and will never lose was the talk. Bullish if not more was the sentiment. This could have played a part in the players mind. 2 practice matches, wins in both. Coming from an IPL that was played in UAE itself. In form players. May be the team underestimated the opponents? How could we not take even a single wicket with the likes of Bhuvi, Bumrah, Shami bowling? May be it is good to lose this way and will keep the team grounded. It will help India face NZ in a week.
Silver lining.
The group in which India are put into is less competitive when compared to group 1 that has AUS, ENG, RSA, WI, SL, BAN. We have a must win game against NZ coming up and should fare better in other league matches. So it is still not the end of the road for India and we can go a long way from here. Few tactical decisions and the team coming together will make us an unstoppable force again. Good luck to us!
Note: I did not talk about the game strategy itself like why did Jadeja come before Pandya, or why Shami bowled instead of Bumrah in that all important 18th over, or why didn’t Shardul play, or any of these that floated around in social media. These are calls a captain takes every match. Some come off well and some don’t and it’s okay.