Not too long ago, a visiting South African team won the Twenty20 series against India 2-0, and it started a debate whether India has it in them to be a world champions again.
Questions were raised about the ordinary death bowling, declining ability of skipper MS Dhoni to finish off the game and the inability to find perfect combination of 11 players.
The main problem India faced was finding good bowlers who could take wickets and control the runs at the death. They tried many options like Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Axar Patel, S Aravind, but none of them were able to control the flow of runs scored by South Africa batsmen during last stage of the innings.
Such was an impact of this loss at home that Indian selectors had to recall the veterans Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh in the mix along with two newcomers in Jaspreet Bumrah and Hardik Pandya.
With a combination of new and old horses, India faced Australia in Australia for one day and T20 series, and although India lost the one day leg, they bounced back
brilliantly to whitewash the Aussies 3-0 in their own backyard.
India won all three games in a controlled manner, and the Australian side (short of first choice players like Warner, Smith) had no answers.
The Indian openers gave them a quick start, followed by the man in the form of his life Virat Kohli taking game out of Australia’s hands by scoring quickfire half centuries.
In the bowling department, Nehra showed excellent control in line and length, while the newcomer Bumrah showed excellent control by bowling yorkers at tail enders. Pandya, too, came in handy with his part-time medium pace which gave Dhoni a good relief to rotate his bowlers to get productive results.
All in all, it was a perfect series for India to test all possible combination of playing eleven before the big ticket tournament. Moreover, they got another good opportunity to test all the players in Asia cup played in Bangladesh which helped Dhoni to stamp the playing eleven line-up for the World Cup.
Shikhar Dhawan showed good form along with the ever-dependable Virat Kohli who played excellent anchoring innings. Yuvraj Singh didn’t disappoint with his batting and proved that he is still a force to reckon and will be vital link for India to win the World Cup.
Nehra, Bumrah, Ashwin and Pandya showed great form with the ball and didn’t allow any of the opposition to dominate, taking wickets regularly to peg back pressure on batsmen. It was a flawless tournament for India and they deservedly won the Asia cup for the record sixth time.
Such has been a dominance shown by India that they look absolute favourites to win the World Cup taking place in India, and who better than the India players, who know the pitch and conditions of the stadium inside out.
Most of the players in playing 11 have been playing consistently well in IPL for respective teams since last eight years. When India takes field in the ICC World T20, these players will be full of confidence about their role, form and match situations and how to handle them and that is the reason. I believe India will be the team
to beat in this tournament.
It is going to be very tough for other teams like New Zealand, Pakistan and Australia to face India at their own backyard considering India has the most settled batting line-up, a strong middle order, perfect bowling combination of spin and pace and I am sure team India will be raring to go and continue to perform where they left off their performance in Asia cup.
Unless a team apart from India shows tremendous fight, calm and perfect game plan to counter the Indian force, I don’t see another team than India lifting world T20 cup for a second time.
Ron Swanson
Roar Guru
Not anymore, you went off a little bit early. Great win by the Black Caps. Pressure is on now.
Darshan Kawar
Roar Pro
@Likkewaan : SA won only by 4 runs, Dhawan and Raina retired when they were playing well. Dhawan was 73 * off just 53 balls and Raina scored 41 from 26 balls. They retired so that other players could get a practice ahead of the main matches and that's why Yuvraj and Dhoni came in the last over. If Dhawan and Raina would have continued, India would have won easily. Also, I am not biased towards India. My point is India is the strongest team having most settled combination of middle order and bowlers, compared too other teams. Australia lost to WI despite Hazlewood's hat-trick. What do you have to say about that ?
Broken-hearted Toy
Guest
Aus will do extremely well to get out of their group. All bets are off if they do though as it will mean that the team has got itself sorted out against spin.
Likkewaan
Roar Rookie
India got flogged by SA in a warm up game. You are obviously biased towards India. On the day anyone of the big 4 teams can win it.
Targa
Guest
Look T20 is already incredibly reliant on luck and now this tournament looks like rain will play a major factor too. Duckworth Lewis anyone?? It is too tough to call - matches can be won or lost in one over.
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
Well written, however i feel that ultimately it will boild down to 2 good games in SF and Final. The team which plays better those 2 games will win and i see India as a top favorite with Australia 2nd favorite and SA and Englans being dark horses. this is because all have players capable of changing a game in 2 overs
Darshan Kawar
Roar Pro
@Liam : The T20 series between India vs Australia was an international series, not a charity series, so obviously the word 'whitewash' is very relevant and applicable. A T20 series followed by One day internationals is a norm now, like we used to have one day series after a test series. Also, resting Australia's best players for T20I series I considered to be a very bizarre idea, that showed that Australia selectors took that series lightly and paid the price for it. They duly selected their frontline players against SA series after learning a lesson against India. Also, talking about Pakistan's chances in the world cup, I don't see them having a chance, because they don't have good batsmen who can carry the team on their shoulders. They have a big time issue in openers and are heavily dependent on Sarfaraz Ahmed and Shoaib Malik. Shahid Afridi is way past his prime and considers himself a leg-spinning allrounder rather than a batsman. Although, their bowling unit seems very strong, they won't be able to pick all 10 wickets if their batsmen don't put a challenging score, which I think will be a very tough task for them. Last thing against Pakistan's chances is players rapport, co-ordination and whether their captain, coach and other players are on same page or not. How the players are going to inspire or encourage themselves when their own captain skips team meetings and net sessions ?
Darshan Kawar
Roar Pro
@BBA : I agree that there's no certainty as what will happen in a T20 match. What I believe is current Indian team is in great form in all 3 departments and look very strong than other teams and there could be few upsets as well.
Liam
Guest
It feels bizarre to read the word 'whitewash' when talking about T20, especially when Australia didn't pick their best side for the games. That being said, whilst India is the obvious front runner, I think anyone who would dismiss Pakistan as just a wildcard is rather silly. Pakistan are probably the second best players of spin in the world, and they have the batting to make runs rather easily. Their bowling will be the interesting part for me, because it will depend entirely on how well they can string dot balls together to win a match that will determine how they go this world cup. That, and they have absolutely nothing to lose; no-one expects them to do anything other than be utterly entertaining. I suppose, it could also be that I don't particularly care about T20 that it is also odd for me to talk about the T20 tournament as a world cup, too.
felix
Guest
On current form I'd say the Aussies look very dangerous,Warner and Maxwell are match winners. Faulkner and Zampa look difficult to get away on any track. Likely favourites are : India - Australia tied at no.1 New Zealand Pakistan Bangladesh South Africa England etc.
BBA
Guest
While I think India is a strong contender and favourite it is hard to fathom your conviction that you "don't see another team than India lifting world T20 cup for a second time." Given the nature of T20 I dont think anyone can predict with any certainty what is going to happen in a T20 match. There are just too many teams which have players that on their day can make things miserable for any team.