Why has India not won the World T20 since its first unexpected win in 2007? Fourteen years is a long time. In 2011, he won the 50-over World Cup at home, “doing it for Sachin.” It was Sachin Tendulkar’s sixth and last tournament, and the team was determined to give him a memorable farewell.
Already, in an echo of the same, there is talk of doing this “for Virat”. Virat Kohli has been stepping down from captaincy in the format after this.
That year 2007 was strange for Indian cricket. In March, he was knocked out of the 50-over World Cup in the opening round. The picture after that loss, of the senior cricketers with swollen eyes, was heart-wrenching at every muscle. Six months later the World T20 came, a new World Cup came in a new format and the seniors withdrew from the team.
There were two reasons for this. India didn’t think much about T20 back then, echoing the initial lack of interest in the 50-over format. Nobody gave India a chance and though the seniors didn’t think it could be emotionally exhausting, they thought it was a young man’s game. So India went with a team whose average age was 23 and whose new captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was 26.
And it worked. In the final, with Pakistan needing 13 runs in the last over, Dhoni called in inexperienced Joginder Sharma to bowl. Misbah-ul-Haq hits a six and then crosses himself in an attempt to catch the leg. When the ball A nation held its breath when it was going into Sreesanth’s hands.
Seeing the progress of India, there was an 18 year old boy named Virat Kohli. Echoing the sentiment recently expressed by the previous generation of Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman, he said, “It had a great impact on my career, starting with India’s victory in the 1983 World Cup. were inspired.”
IPL was established
India’s victory changed the face of cricket. The following year the IPL was established, further cementing India’s position as the center of the cricketing world. At that time, the promoter expressed as many positive dreams of the IPL as he could.
And one of the ways was that it would train the Indian teams for the World T20, preparing the players for the world stage. It sounded plausible then, but where has India fallen?
The first and obvious answer is that with home T20 series being played all over the world, now every country has both the players and the experience.
The fact that the first six tournaments were won by five different nations seems to have diminished the level of relative strength. The fewer overs, the more open the tournament will be.
In 2016, India tried to reverse the basic principle of batting in T20Is – that hitting sixes counts. Despite Kohli’s unbeaten 89 off 47 balls (one six), they lost to West Indies in the semi-finals as West Indies hit six sixes almost three times. India’s bowlers bowled crucial no-balls (twice taking wickets from them) and West Indies needed 109 runs in the last 10 overs.
Four consecutive sixes from Carlos Brathwaite in the final over (off Ben Stokes), which helped West Indies win their second title, was further confirmation of the theory. Matches are won by sixes in T20 cricket.
In the last World Cup, West Indies hit a six every 16.3 balls against the top 7 teams; The rate for other teams in the top seven was one six every 22.5 balls. Fast, boundaries and especially sixes decide the result. This is an area that India needs to work on. Since the 2016 T20 World Cup, India has been hitting West Indies for a six at the rate of 13.5 in every 17.4 balls.
The story of T20 cricket is a story of a steady decline in balls-per-sixes, from 28 in 2009 to 20 in 2018.
not a flickering shot
Sixes are no longer seen as a casual shot, but are fundamental to success in the format.
It’s a great percentage shot, something that Chris Gayle probably felt first and acted on. Power hitting training has become routine in T20 cricket.
As statistics show, India has realized the importance of six-hitting, but the frequency needs to be worked out. A three-ball 18 can often be the difference between teams, often even better than a 35-ball 50. T20 is a game for ‘sixialists’, specialists whose job is only to hit sixes.
India go into the tournament as the favourites. It’s not a situation they’re not used to. And in their corner is the man who took them to victory in 2007, Dhoni, now as the ‘guru’ in the team. All the bases are probably covered.
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