Under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya, India lost 3-2 to the West Indies in the 5 T20 series, 5 reasons for Team India’s defeat
West Indies put on a strong performance to beat India by 8 wickets in the fifth and final T20 match played in Florida to clinch the five-match T20I series 3-2. This is Team India’s first T20I series defeat against West Indies since 2017. After trailing 0-2 in the series, India made a strong comeback by winning the next two matches to make the score 2-2, but in the fifth match, the Windies team proved themselves twenty in every field of the game and won the series. Took.
In the first two matches of the series, Team India lost even after coming close to winning. Chasing a target of 159 in the first T20, the Indian team crumbled under pressure and lost the match by just 4 runs. Something similar happened in the second T20 as well and after setting a target of 153 runs, Team India could not drop the last two wickets and lost by 2 wickets in a thrilling match after Windies team dropped 8 wickets for 129 runs. After leveling the series 2-2, in the fifth match also appeared under pressure to save the series and could score only 165 runs in 20 overs, which the Windies team won the match in 18 overs, proving to be a dwarf with their quick batting. .
5 main reasons for Team India’s defeat in T20 series against West Indies
1. Team India’s opening pair flop show
Team India was longing for a good start in this entire T20 series. Leaving only the fourth match, the opening pair could never get Team India off to a strong start. In the first two matches, he adopted the pair of Ishaan Kishan and Shubman Gill, but this pair failed. In the first match, the pair of Gill-Kishan could only add 5 runs for the first wicket and 16 runs in the second T20. In the third T20, India got the opening pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill in place of Ishaan Kish, but this pair also flopped and could only add 6 runs. In the fourth match, the pair of Zaroor Jaiswal and Gill shared a 165-run partnership for the first wicket, which is the joint highest opening partnership for India in T20s. Its effect was also visible and India registered a resounding 9-wicket win in this match. But once again in the fifth match of the series, Team India’s opening pair flopped and Yashasvi-Shubman’s pair could score only 6 runs.
2. Team India could not deal with Nicholas Pooran
Nicholas Pooran played the most important role in West Indies’ T20 series victory. Pooran scored the highest 176 runs in 5 innings at an average of 35.20 in the T20 series. Whenever Pooran batted, the Windies team won and whenever he flopped, the Caribbean team was defeated. He scored 41 and 67 in the first and second T20Is respectively as West Indies won. West Indies were defeated when he failed with scores of 20 and 1 in the third and fourth T20s. In the fifth T20, Puran played a strong inning of 47 runs and the Windies team won again. Team India’s bowlers were seen struggling against Puran in this entire T20 series.
3. Failure of Team India’s batsmen
Team India’s batsmen failed to leave their impact in this entire T20 series. Except for Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Verma, the rest of the batsmen were seen struggling to score runs. After flopping in the first two T20s, Surya scored 83 runs in 44 balls in the third T20 and 61 runs in 45 balls in the fifth T20. Apart from Surya, only Tilak Verma could impress in this series. In his debut T20 series, Tilak Verma scored 173 runs including a half-century and finished as India’s highest run-scorer in the series and joint second overall. Apart from these two, the rest of the batsmen failed to show their strength with the bat in most of the matches (except only the fourth).
4. Questions raised on Hardik Pandya’s captaincy and batting
In the T20 series, the most questions arose on the captaincy and attitude of Indian captain Hardik Pandya. For example, in the second T20 when in response to the target of 153 runs, at one time the Windies team had lost 8 wickets for 129 runs. In a tense moment when the Windies needed 12 runs from 12 balls, Pandya’s decision not to bowl to Yuzvendra Chahal in the 19th over was criticized. In that match, Chahal took 2 wickets for 19 runs in 3 overs. India lost this match by 2 wickets in the 19th over itself.
Pandya also struggled with the bat throughout the series and managed only scores of 19, 24, 20* and 14.
Also, during Team India’s victory in the third T20, Pandya was also trolled for being away from the half-century of Tilak Verma at the other end by hitting the winning six himself. After losing the T20 series, Pandya’s statements like ‘a series doesn’t matter and sometimes defeat is also good’ also raised questions on his attitude.
5. Team India’s inexperienced pace attack
The Indian pace attack looked inexperienced in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj with Mukesh Kumar and Arshdeep Singh failing to make an impact. Arshdeep Singh took 7 wickets but scored runs at an economy rate of 9.17. At the same time, despite playing in all the matches, Mukesh Kumar could only take 3 wickets while his economy rate was 8.80. Hardik Pandya took 4 wickets at an economy rate of 8.4.
Most importantly, the Indian pace attack did not pose a threat to the West Indies batsmen and failed to make an impact in the powerplay. Also, the role of any of these bowlers could not be decided and they kept on bowling in different overs of the innings.
