Opinion Four defeats in, a cricket question
The pattern began even before England: A 0-2 sweep to Ireland, a side India had not lost to previously, followed by a wash-out and two more defeats on this tour
The test now is whether they can course-correct a second time, towards genuine range: Batters who can go from fifth gear to second and back, without the innings stalling. Four defeats in four completed matches since winning the T20 World Cup ought to prompt a harder question than the one India’s team management keeps answering. Asked about the collapse at Trent Bridge, bowled out for 76, the second-lowest total in India’s T20 history, coach Gautam Gambhir reached for a familiar word: Reset. A new captain, a 15-year-old opener, a seamer on his second cap — none of it explains why the team keeps losing in the same way, in a pattern that began even before England.
What connects these results is not inexperience as much as a single, brittle method. For years, India batted cautiously in T20s despite being home to the IPL, T20’s most aggressive league. Only from the 2023 ODI World Cup was that caution shed for good, full-throttle hitting top to bottom of the order. Two T20 World Cups followed. But a method built around bat speed and boundary hitting asks one thing: Commit early, trust the ball to arrive where it’s supposed to. Pitches offering extra bounce or grip reward precisely the adjustment that method leaves no room for. At Trent Bridge, five wickets fell in the powerplay to the short ball, Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube.
This is not a personnel problem: Swap in more experienced players and it will likely persist, because the unit was built for one method only. India shed conservatism once and were rewarded for it. The test now is whether they can course-correct a second time, towards genuine range: Batters who can go from fifth gear to second and back, without the innings stalling. Four defeats in, that’s a fair question to ask.
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