India face South Africa in a must win game tomorrow at Visakhapatnam to save the series where they are two zero down and need to win every game in the remaining three matches to win the series.
Team Indias biggest quandram is when they are put in to bat and are not able to defend totals. More often than not India loose if the are put in by the opposition team and still are not able to win regularly when inserted in by the team winning the toss.
Let’s go back to the 2014 World cup where India dominated the World Cup and won almost all their games batting second with Virat Kohli being the chase master. They fell at the final hurdle when they were put in to bat and lost to eventual winners Srilanka who chased down the target of 130 which denied India it’s second title win. Similarly in 2016 World Cup, India lost to West Indies in the semifinals in Mumbai inspite of posting 190 and were knocked out of the World cup bringing tears in the eyes of Billion fans who felt this was their world cup to win. In the last world cup in the UAE too, Indias two big games were against Pakistan and Newzealand and in both games India lost the toss and were unable to put good scores and it ended their World cup campaign as they could not make it to the knock out.
Australia who were the eventual champions last year in UAE won all their six games chasing and the only game they lost to England when they were put in. Most of the times batters complain that the wicket is bit tacky batting first and are not able to get going and there is no clarity as to what score would be good enough for the team to defend it. From the 2014 World cup in Bangladesh eight of the nine knockout matches have been won by team batting second. But it’s time Indian batsman find a way and win matches when put in to bat first. They play enough T20 matches in their premier franchise cricket Ipl and should play the right brand of cricket when batting first and win games. Yes it’s easy to chase as you have the target in mind and batters can plan their chase accordingly. But it’s time this does not become an excuse for loosing the game if you loose the toss. Can
Rishab Pant change this pattern and make India bounce back, time will tell.
