What exactly was the first thing you did this morning? If it was basically checking the cricket score from the 4th ODI between India and even New Zealand, chances are your day didn’t begin all that perfectly. After an ODI series win in Australia and then three successful performances in New Zealand, this was perhaps the last thing Indian cricket fans would have expected. 92 is the seventh lowest squad total ever for India. But, is just one bad day at the office reason enough to panic? No.
However, the nature with the loss does demand a very close look at what journeyed wrong in Hamilton.
At the very outset, it’s important to possibly not put this down to the absence of two key players. Yes, Virat Kohli is on a break and yes, MS Dhoni can be recovering from a niggle. But India’s bench strength has been taken about so much of late, it’s unfair to say the staff is directionless if Virat and Dhoni are not playing. Over often the top criticism is not the right way to go.
It’s at the same time unfair to criticise the players too harshly. The top and meeting place order (even in the one other match MS Dhoni missed) come with been doing quite well so far on this tour.
Stand-in chief Rohit Sharma admitted after the match that this performance was some big shock, saying, “One of our worst experiences with the baseball bat for a long time. Something we didn’t expect. â€
There’s a reason there is an entire list of lowest international team counts, which has scores of 36, 36, 38, 43, 43, 44 while the six lowest team totals of all time. These things transpire. And yes, any cricket expert will tell you that Thursday’s general performance by Team India was an aberration. But that does not indicate that the team will ignore this altogether. No modern day workforce can afford to do that. And sometimes, it’s embarrassing losses such ì•ˆì „ë†€ì´í„° 중 ìµœê³ as this one which are a blessing in disguise in the extended run.
One swallow doesn’t make a summer. But, of course, simply no international team can afford to let a performance like this glide. No doubt, it will be dissected and analysed in detail. Simply because Trent Boult was in good rhythm and found helpful golf swing can’t be reason enough for a World Cup title favourite staff to be bowled out in 30. 5 overs for less when compared with 100. No coaching staff/team management can afford to overlook it.
Typically the previous three wins, which gave the team their first bilateral ODI series win in New Zealand since March 2009 were team initiatives. This shock defeat was a collective failure. And that is maybe what will worry the team management the most. Only four Native indian batsmen managed to get to double digits, while two batsmen whose main job is to be middle order linchpins, Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik fell for ducks. Yuzvendra Chahal incredibly was the leading scorer with 18*. Now, you would not of course criticise any kind of batsman for not managing to score in one match, but when the team crashes from 23/1 to 40/7, you know the batsmen are not applying themselves as per the demands of the types of conditions and the strengths of the opposition. With Trent Boult firing relating to all cylinders, Kane Williamson chose to use all 10 overs in his bowling spearhead on the trot. He adapted as per the conditions his bowlers were exploiting and the match situation, the British isles batsmen didn’t. And Rohit Sharma was totally honest about that, indicating, “Something to learn for us. At times you need to take up pressure. We need to blame ourselves for it. Things were seeking good at one stage. It was about applying ourselves. â€
No matter what this shock loss, it will be difficult for any expert in order to point out any major chinks in India’s armour. Quite simply considering that the trend has been quite the opposite, in terms of overall results. Since the bilateral ODI series in Zimbabwe in 2016, Indian have won 11 of 12 bilateral ODI series. The only permission was the three match series in England last year, which this Men in Blue narrowly lost 2-1.
If there’s one word of which describes the current Indian cricket team completely it is ‘professional’. The exact constant effort is to try and cover all bases. So whereas 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.