India began and ended their Asia Cup campaign with a bang. But in the two crucial matches against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in between in the Super Four stage, India came a cropper. Either the top-order struck and the middle-order did not or it was the other way round, and the death overs in these two matches left a lot to be desired.
It was only ironic that Virat Kohli’s first ever T20I hundred (122 not out in 61 balls), which broke his 1,020-day international century drought, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s best-ever T20I figures of five for four in four overs came in an inconsequential match against Afghanistan on Thursday after both the teams were not in the race for the final.
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Much before the Asia Cup began, the defending champions India, having won the 50-over format of this Cup in 2018 in Bangladesh, were pitted to face Pakistan in the final. That would have meant three consecutive Super Sundays to ignite the spectators’ interest.
While Pakistan made it to the final in style, they will face Sri Lanka for the right to be called the best T20I team in Asia. India lost two important fixtures against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in identical penultimate deliveries by five wickets and six wickets, respectively.
The trend in Dubai has been that teams chasing have won a majority of the matches and, like KL Rahul said post the 101-run win against Afghanistan, toss proved to be a decisive factor in this Asia Cup than in any other tournaments that India have played before in Dubai.
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Experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar may have produced his career-best figures, and third best by an Indian, against Afghanistan on Thursday, his wickets coming up-front with some beautiful swing bowling.
But, it was his disappointing bowling in the death overs against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, sending down full tosses, short pitches and wide of off-stump giving the batsmen enough room to put bat on ball. Giving away 19 and 14 crucial runs in the 19th over of both the matches against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, respectively, contributed largely to India’s premature exit.
Kumar’s economy rate, which was 7.40 after four matches in Asia Cup, was made to look a more impressive 6.05, thanks to his miserly spell on Thursday. It was left to the young and inexperienced Arshdeep Singh to defend identical seven runs in the final over of both the matches.
Only into his second month of international cricket, Singh could hardly do much when the batsmen were going for the target. However, barring the match against Hong Kong, where he went for 44 runs, the 23-year-old has shown eagerness to learn and improve with every outing. And, with his yorkers falling in the right places more often than not in the end overs, and being a left-armer, Singh will be an invaluable asset for the Indian team in the future. The way in which he took the ball and bowled the last over immediately after dropping a sitter off Asif Ali in the 19th over spoke a lot about his confidence and eagerness to do well for the country.
India’s bowling overall may have been weakened by the absence through injuries of varying proportions of Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel, and also by keeping death-over specialist Deepak Chahar out as a reserve player, before he eventually replaced expensive pacer Avesh Khan, who was ruled out of the last match due to illness. Ravindra Jadeja’s all-round expertise was also missed in the Super Four as he hurt his right knee for which he had undergone surgery recently.
However, in the matches that Khan has played, his economy rate has only risen from 8.68 to 9.11, conceding 19 runs in two overs against Pakistan and 53 in four overs against Hong Kong. Khan has not done himself any good to stake his claim for the upcoming T20 World Cup and would be the first one to give way when Bumrah returns to the squad.
Khan apart, the experienced leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal ought to have been put into much better effect. Chahal may have taken three wickets in the space of two overs in the middle of Pakistan run-chase in Super Four but he ought to have taken many more wickets, considering that he was India’s highest T20I wicket-taker coming into the tournament but was overtaken by Kumar at the end of it. Kumar has 84 T20I wickets, leaving Chahal behind by one.
India suffered from the lack of a third seamer and Hardik Pandya played that role to a decent extent, though he could have brought his experience and contained the Pakistanis and the Lankans in the Super Four.
The only spinner who impressed was unorthodox leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, who went for 26 runs and took one wicket against Pakistan when he should have taken one more at least. But, he was kept out of the playing 11 for the Sri Lanka and Afghanistan games. Like the team vice-captain Rahul, who led the side in the absence of the rested Rohit Sharma for the last game, said Bishnoi has to wait for his matches as the team already had Chahal, who has been winning matches for the country.
The strong Indian batting line-up came good in patches. It was at its best in the last game against Afghanistan when they posted their eighth highest T20I total of 212 for two including a 119-run stand for the first wicket between stand-in captain Rahul and opener Virat Kohli.
Kohli has been India’s most consistent scorer in this tournament, posting 276 runs in five innings at 92.00. Barring a shaky start against Pakistan in which he made 35 against Pakistan, he has been in good nick to notch up scores of 59 not out against Hong Kong, 60 against Pakistan and the century, not minding the fourth-ball duck against Sri Lanka.
Rahul was at his fluent best with 62 after a first-ball duck in the tournament opener and a slow 36 against Hong Kong. His confidence was not at its best when he fell for 6 but he took the liberty to bat freely in a match that had little impact on the tournament to post his lone half-century in the tournament on Thursday.
While Rohit got starts, he only made it big against Sri Lanka with 72, Suryakumar Yadav played a match-winning knock against Hong Kong in his typical fashion. But the Indian batting lacked consistency.
Either, it did not continue from where the top-order left and that resulted in them not making a few extra runs that would have been crucial in the Super Four matches that went down till the penultimate delivery.
Or, it was under pressure after the top-order struggled that it played cautiously rather than taking chances. And, when they took chances, they ended up giving catches, like Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda and Hardik Pandya fell in the crucial end overs against Sri Lanka.
This Indian team will be boosted by the return to form of Kohli but what it needs is consistent, solid starts by Rohit and Rahul with Yadav, Pant and Pandya needing to continue from where the top-order left on a regular basis. When they get going, they are unstoppable by any stretch of imagination. If they can be more consistent in doing that, there is nothing that can stop India from lifting the World Cup.
The big question mark is ‘If’.
India will need all their players to be fit and ready for the World Cup. Bumrah, it is understood, is on course to being fully fit, Jadeja’s recovery will be monitored before selecting the World Cup squad while nothing is known whether Patel will be fit enough.
The Indian team’s performances in the Asia Cup was an eye opener for Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid to introspect and find the right balance going into the World Cup. This team promises a lot. It is now time to deliver in unison. And, consistently at that.
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