India were defeated by New Zealand by eight wickets on Sunday in what was one of the most one-sided matches of the tournament.
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Many pundits and former cricketers have been reflecting on India’s poor performance in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup, particularly after their second consecutive loss to New Zealand on Sunday. Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar, who has had to come out in support of Virat Kohli and his team following the loss, has released a new video in which he asks Indian fans to exercise restraint on social media. Shoaib also claimed that the Indian cricket camp was divided into two, with one side supporting Kohli and the other one against him.
“Why I can see that there are two camps within the team? One is with the Kohli and one against Kohli. It’s crystal clear. The team is looking divided. I don’t know why this is happening. Maybe it’s because of his last T20 World Cup as a skipper. Maybe he made wrong decisions, which is true. But he’s a great cricketer, and we have to respect him,” the former Pakistan fast bowler opined on his YouTube channel.
India were defeated by New Zealand by eight wickets on Sunday in what was one of the most one-sided matches of the tournament. Kohli and his team had their backs against the wall after losing to arch-rivals Pakistan in the first game by an even bigger margin.
“Yes, criticism is important because they played bad cricket against New Zealand and had the wrong attitude. Yesterday, after they lost the toss, everyone’s heads were down. They had no idea whatsoever. India, you only lost the toss by that time, not the whole match. They were just present there, and had no gameplan whatsoever,” Shoaib added.
India’s hopes of making it to the semi-finals of the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup took a massive hit as they were beaten by New Zealand on Sunday. The Indian batting order completely collapsed in the first innings as they were restricted to just 110-7 in 20 overs. In response, the Kiwis made 111-2 in 14.3 overs. The charge was led by New Zealand opener Daryl Mitchell who played an absolutely fantastic knock. Mitchell made 49 runs. He was extremely well supported by his skipper Kane Williamson who played a steady innings.
However, nothing can take the focus away from how dismal India were in both batting and bowling departments on the day. The last time India beat New Zealand in a world event was at Centurion in 2003, when Sourav Ganguly was the captain of the Indian team. Since then, the Black Caps have won all of their matches against India in world events.
India will have to win all of their remaining matches if they are to even have a chance to make it through to the semi-finals of the competition. On paper, India should emerge as comfortable victors against Scotland, Namibia, and Afghanistan but neither of these teams should be taken lightly. If India plays the way they did against Pakistan and the Kiwis, Kohli might very well be in for an absolutely horrible end to his tenure as the team’s T20 skipper.
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