Having condemned West Indies cricket in my last blog, I take my words back after seeing West Indies knocking down India in the recently concluded T-20 series. There is no doubt that the shortest format is the best format for West Indies, because of their big hitters. But, having said that, it is only fair to mention that West Indies has indeed sprung a surprise by downing India, the nation who boasts of having the most promising T-20 league in the world.
Overconfidence-a Major Reason for the Downing of India
We can say that the over confident team India has reaped the just reward for their complacent approach to say the least. All the big guns, Rohit, Kohli, Siraj, Shami were rested and it is only fair to say that it was a B team barring two or three players and the results proved that taking the opposition lightly was a big mistake on the part of the Indian think tank.
The question arises that, when the T-20 world Cup is supposed to be held in 2024 in America and the Caribbean, what will India do, if they are not able to win against a considerably weak west Indian side who even failed to qualify for the ODI world cup to be held in October 2023 in India.
Gill Not Firing on All Cylinders
Gill was a thrill to watch before the west Indies tour, but in this, the blade of the young right-hander from Punjab has not blazed like it was doing before this series. Gill has only managed one-fifty plus score in the ODIs and T20s combined. With gill not firing on all cylinders, the equation for could get tough for the hosts in the World cup, and in the Asia Cup as well.
Too Much Experimentation, Not Done
It is good to experiment in sports, but the fact of the matter is that, you should not experiment too much. It seemed in the selection of Team India, if they are to play a series of club games and not international cricket. The pace battery had Mukesh Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Indian Skipper Hardik Pandya. Two of them were relatively experienced at International Level and Pandya himself has come out of Injury off late.
Questionable selection of Sanju Samson over Ishan Kishan
Sanju Samson is the topic of talk, when he is not in the Indian team, but in the last 19 innings that he has played for India, eh has not managed to achieve a score in excess of 50. If someone is to ask that why Sanju was given an opportunity over Ishan Kishan, who was in a good reign of form in the ODI’s specially. So, it was all in all a series of blunders by the Indian think tank.
If we consider this series as a story, so the moral of the story for the Indian team was that, do not ever take the opposition lightly and also don’t be overconfident. The Indian players will be saying sorry to the Windies for counting them totally out of the series.