What exactly was the first thing you did this morning? If it seemed to be checking the cricket score from the 4th ODI between India as well as New Zealand, chances are your day didn’t begin all that properly. After an ODI series win in Australia and then three impressive performances in New Zealand, this was perhaps the last thing Native american indian cricket fans would have expected. 92 is the seventh lowest team total ever for India. But, is just one bad day during the office reason enough to panic? No.
However, the nature of the loss does demand a very close look at what moved wrong in Hamilton.
At the very outset, it’s important to not likely put this down to the absence of two key players. Of course, Virat Kohli is on a break and yes, MS Dhoni is without a doubt recovering from a niggle. But India’s bench strength has been spoken about so much of late, it’s unfair to say the squad is directionless if Virat and Dhoni are not playing. Over your top criticism is not the right way to go.
It’s furthermore unfair to criticise the players too harshly. The top and average order (even in the one other match MS Dhoni missed) come with been doing quite well so far on this tour.
Stand-in captain Rohit Sharma admitted after the match that this performance was some sort of big shock, saying, “One of our worst experiences with the softball bat for a long time. Something we didn’t expect. â€
There’s an important reason there is an entire list of lowest international team totals, which has scores of 36, 36, 38, 43, 43, 44 like the six lowest team totals of all time. These things manifest. And yes, any cricket expert will tell you that Thursday’s overall performance by Team India was an aberration. But that does not suggest that the team will ignore this altogether. No modern day company can afford to do that. And sometimes, it’s embarrassing losses similar to this one which are a blessing in disguise in the extensive run.
One swallow doesn’t make a summer. But, of course, simply no international team can afford to let a performance like this fall. No doubt, it will be dissected and analysed in detail. Just simply because Trent Boult was in good rhythm and found helpful hit with can’t be reason enough for a World Cup title favourite team to be bowled out in 30. 5 overs for less as compared to 100. No coaching staff/team management can afford to overlook it.
This previous three wins, which gave the team their first bilateral ODI series win in New Zealand since March 2009 were team campaigns. This shock defeat was a collective failure. And that is it could be that what will worry the team management the most. Only four Indian batsmen managed to get to double digits, while two batsmen whose main job is to be middle order linchpins, Ambati Rayudu plus Dinesh Karthik fell for ducks. ì•ˆì „ë†€ì´í„° 중 ìµœê³ Yuzvendra Chahal incredibly was the leading scorer with 18*. Now, you would not of course criticise virtually any batsman for not managing to score in one match, but as soon as the team crashes from 23/1 to 40/7, you know the batsmen are not applying themselves as per the demands of the disorders and the strengths of the opposition. With Trent Boult firing regarding all cylinders, Kane Williamson chose to use all 10 overs about his bowling spearhead on the trot. He adapted as per your conditions his bowlers were exploiting and the match situation, the American native batsmen didn’t. And Rohit Sharma was totally honest about that, telling me, “Something to learn for us. At times you need to take up pressure. We need to blame ourselves for it. Things were researching good at one stage. It was about applying ourselves. â€
In the face of this shock loss, it will be difficult for any expert to help point out any major chinks in India’s armour. Quite simply simply because the trend has been quite the opposite, in terms of all around results. Since the bilateral ODI series in Zimbabwe in 2016, Yavatmal, india have won 11 of 12 bilateral ODI series. The only permission was the three match series in England last year, which your Men in Blue narrowly lost 2-1.
If there’s one word of which describes the current Indian cricket team completely it is ‘professional’. Often the constant effort is to try and cover all bases. So though it’s definitely not time to press the panic button, a ‘professional’ look at what went wrong on Thursday in Hamilton is there is no benefits needed. Especially since the World Cup countdown has already begun.