Did India really prepare for the T20 World Cup 2022?

Another huge ICC tournament ended in heartbreak. In the run-up to the showpiece event in 2022, the team played 32 T20Is, the most of any team in the globe. 29 players were tried as a new template of non-stop attack was adopted after the debacle in last year’s T20 WC. The Rohit Sharma-led team arrived in Australia about three weeks before the opening encounter against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 23rd for better preparations and acclimatisation. Despite all of the efforts and the typical bustle, there was always a sense of the unknown. The illusion was broken as the team reached rock bottom when they lost to England in the semifinal. Here we dissect the year-long preparation India had.

India had their worst performance in an ICC tournament in 8 years in the 2021 T20 World Cup. That led to a change in the team management as Rohit Sharma took over the captaincy and Rahul Dravid joined as the head coach. They had their plans clear for what they needed to do to prepare for the 2022 T20 WC. Just ahead of the New Zealand series which followed the 2021 T20 WC both Rohit and Dravid made it clear that the team wants to play in a certain way and that they want to give security to players.

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“It’s important, especially in this format, that sometimes you just need to go out there and play fearlessly and while doing that, there are chances that you might not always be successful because it’s a short format and you’re always challenged. The pressure is always there. We certainly will keep an eye on that aspect; that’s where the entire set-up will play a big part wherever that individual bats, and how we want him to bat, goes and does the job for us. If he doesn’t then we instil confidence in him that we have full faith in you, just go and do the role for the team. As long as they’re trying to do the role for the team, we are happy”, Rohit had said.

On what the team’s template would be Rohit said, “Template is a very important one and we need to set it right. We’ve got some time to do that. India has been brilliant in this format, it’s just that we haven’t won the ICC tournament. We played well and performed well as a team. Of course, there are little holes we need to fill and make sure they’re looked after. That will be the biggest challenge we’ll have as a team.” Dravid, meanwhile, had insisted that workload management would be important too.

The question is, did the actions show what they said in the 32 matches India played?

The answer is a big no. While it is no secret that India’s approach did change at the top of the order in the powerplay as they attacked more in the powerplay with the captain himself taking up the extra responsibility, it is with the team selection that the team let itself down. KL Rahul was never in top form in T20Is in the last two years. His record against Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka in the last couple of years was abysmal; his strike rate as well as his average is well below par. Due to a variety of factors, he did not play a T20I match this year until August 28th. Not only was he welcomed back in the team with open arms, he was also reinstalled as India’s vice-captain.

Rohit Sharma’s record and Ishan Kishan’s record are far better than Rahul’s against the same teams yet Kishan despite being in the T20 set-up till the West Indies tour was not considered for the Asia cup and the World Cup. It was not only Kishan who was left out without any reason. Shreyas Iyer too was left out of the squad despite playing in 17 games leading up to the tournament. There were always question marks over Iyer’s weakness playing the short ball, still, the management persisted with him only to leave him out of the WC squad.

Who was going to be the all-rounder?

This harakiri in selection was not only limited to batting. They chopped and changed all-rounders too. After the 2021 WC, Venkatesh Iyer was preferred for the number 6 slot as Pandya was nursing an injury. Iyer did well in the limited opportunities he got and he was with the squad till as recently as India’s tour of England. But despite doing well in limited opportunities, he never got to play too many games. Once Pandya returned Venkatesh Iyer was completely forgotten.

Ravindra Jadeja played 8 games while Axar Patel another left-handed batter played 14 games. Whenever Jadeja was not available Axar was preferred. Venkatesh Iyer was never considered at all. As it turned out India did not have a left-handed batter in the middle order as Jadeja was ruled out from the tournament which meant that they had to choose between Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant despite the fact that both players perform different roles. Eventually, Pant featured in the Semi-Final but was not utilised by the team well. Pant’s selection in the team was itself a dodgy call considering he would not have made it to the team had Jadeja been fit. Sanju Samson might have gotten the preference but that is a different debate altogether. Ultimately, Patel played as the 2nd all-rounder and had a below-par tournament with nine runs in five matches and three wickets at an average of 38.33 and an economy of 8.62. The question is can someone like V Iyer would have been a better option? We would never know because he never got any opportunities.

The spin department was not sorted as well

India went with Varun C and Rahul Chahar in the 2021 T20 WC and ignored Yuzvendra Chahal. But right after the WC they went back to Chahal and included Ravi Bishnoi as well. Both Chahal and Bishnoi got sufficient game time before the T20 World Cup. But come to the world cup, one was not picked in the XI at all and the other was part of the reserves.

As can be seen from these numbers both were wicket-tacking options and bowled economically as well. Ravichandran Ashwin who was part of last year’s WC as well as this year was preferred over both of these leggies as he provided batting depth. But Ashwin’s batting was rarely needed. A look at his T20I numbers in the bowling department tells us that although Ashwin is a good defensive T20 bowler he lacks the wicket-taking ability and his dot ball percentage was not better than Ravi Bishnoi’s.

It is quite clear that there is not much difference between Ashwin’s and Bishnoi’s economies. Bishnoi was not competing with Chahal for a spot as he is not a regular leg-spinner. He mostly bowls googlies which effectively means that he is more of a right-arm wrist-off spinner. A far better option for India would have been to include Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi in the XI rather than Ashwin and Patel. Axar struggled in the tournament as he too is a defensive spinner and he found it hard to control runs whenever he bowled. He was taken down by Iftikar against Pakistan and then by Hales and Buttler in the semi-final.

What about the pacers?

India went in with Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar, Shardul and Shami in last year’s T20 WC. With the 2022 WC in Australia, there was a sense that India would need a couple more options in the pace department. Come the Pakistan game in the 2022 WC only Bumrah was missing from the XI rest were the same from last year. India brought in Harshal Patel after the 2021 WC, they tried Arshdeep and Avesh Khan too. They even tried Umran Malik for a couple of games but in all this Bumrah played just 5 games after the T20 WC in 2021. They were really banking on Bumrah for them to carry the pace department till as late as the last date to submit the list of 15 member-squad. India was reluctant to even try Arsdheep Singh. He did not get any games for a while after an impressive debut. He started getting opportunities only after Harshal Patel was ruled out of the West Indies series and the Asia cup.

Harshal Patel was backed to do the job for India even after these poor numbers:

Avesh Khan was also backed till the Asia cup but then he was ignored for the world cup. His numbers are not too dissimilar from Harshal but Patel got the nod again because he could bat.

One would think that Avesh would have been backed considering he is a hit-the-deck bowler but he was ignored. Siraj who had played just 3 games in the last 1 year was picked in the reserves while Shami had played not a single T20I after last year’s WC. Shardul Thakur another player who was included in the reserves had played just 3 games since T20 WC 2021. Deepak Chahar another contender for a spot in the squad had played 10 games. Although the Indian pace department did well at the WC, there could be no denying that the management did not bother much thinking about the reserves in case there were injury scares.

Who was India’s finisher?

Till Dinesh Karthik game changing IPL 2022, India had no designated finisher with V Iyer doing the job before the IPL. But after the IPL Karthik was chosen as the finisher. This was Karthik’s numbers in the last 5 overs before the WC.

Pandya’s numbers on the other hand in the same period are far better. The question is then if Karthik was chosen specifically as a finisher did he do his job? Because as it turned out he was left out of the SF against England after being backed till then.

Pant who replaced him in the SF had similar numbers in overs 15-20 in the same period but his role was never made clear by the management. Pant’s strike rate is close to DK’s and his average is better than DK’s. So even here India were never really prepared.

When it comes to batting in the overs 10-15, DK batted only 4 times in that period and struck at just over 60. While Pant in the same period struck at a far better strike rate.

These numbers are all from before India played Pakistan at the WC 2022. These numbers show that the team messed it up. The management with all their talk of looking at matchups and data did not really go by the numbers when it came to selection. The less we talk about India’s overall batting strategy during the WC the better because already a lot has been written about it. India has lost another big opportunity. India are stuck in a depressing cycle and will need to reinvent themselves to get out of it. Can they do it?