India Must Adapt, Not Panic, After England Reality Check
India’s performances in England and Ireland have been below par — not just below par, but well below par. For a team that won the World Cup three months ago, to play the way they have is surprising. While winning and losing are part of sport, being bowled out for 76 and failing to turn up is alarming. Understandably, there is outrage, and the omission of Sanju Samson has only added to it. This is precisely why there is an urgent need for balance.
Gautam Gambhir is right in saying that a few defeats do not make India a bad team. They certainly do not. But nor can those defeats simply be brushed aside. This is international cricket, and you cannot ignore what is happening and hope things will sort themselves out.
Yes, India play a high-risk, high-reward brand of T20 cricket. But can the same approach be used in all conditions? Can a method that works in India, on Indian pitches, be employed in exactly the same way in English conditions, where there is considerably more assistance for the bowlers? Is adaptability not the essence of the game?
Take the opening pair. Abhishek Sharma charged down the pitch to Jofra Archer off the very first ball. It has now happened in consecutive matches. While he got away with it in Manchester, he perished attempting the same stroke in Nottingham. In percentage terms, will Abhishek succeed often enough by taking on Archer in England, or are the chances of dismissal significantly higher? High risk, high reward cannot mean accepting so much risk that the prospect of reward becomes minimal. The issue is one of approach, and India’s batters have failed to adapt to the conditions.
Jacob Bethell, England’s match-winner in Manchester, played the ideal innings. He took his time to settle before unleashing an explosive finish. Are the Indian batters incapable of doing the same? Certainly not. They have the ability, but they have shown little willingness to adapt so far.
No single player can change this. It has been a collective failure and must be addressed as such. Cricket has always been about respecting the conditions and playing according to what is on offer. India have not shown that flexibility and have paid the price. It is almost as if the batters know only one way to play — arrive at the crease and start attacking from the first ball, even if it hands the opposition an opportunity. How many of them have played conventional cricket shots? Aggressive batting does not always mean slogging, and those finer nuances have been missing from India’s approach.
While I see no reason for a meltdown just yet — bilateral T20Is remain relatively low on the list of priorities — it is imperative that the team management acknowledges what has gone wrong. Having made changes to the side and invested in a new captain, it must accept the shortcomings, introspect and respond. The management can no longer turn a blind eye, because the pressure on Shreyas Iyer and Gautam will only continue to build if results do not improve. There is plenty for India to reflect on as they head to Bristol for the next match.
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