World T20 2014: Why we think that India cannot win the championship

The world T20 is around the corner and all the teams and fans are warming up to put up the contender ship for their respective countries. A total of 16 teams will be fighting for the title, 8 out of which would undergo a qualifying round before the main tournament starts.

The Indian team which has been on a bad run since the South African tour has a lot to worry about in the limited over format of the game. They have now lost 9 of their last 12 games, winning only two. Now the T2o format is an entirely different scenario than that of the 50 over format, but you can’t deny that the basic of the game is the same. India has not been able to give a complete team performance since the champions trophy now, and the lack of balance in the team is clearly visible. Here we take a look at the area of concern for the Indian team in the shorter format.

Now we are not talking about the IPL or any other domestic league, what we do want to put forward is that the Indian team last played a t20 international match on 10th October 2013 against the Australians, which they did manage to win due to career best figures from Yuvraj Singh. Before that India had not played another T20 in another 10 months, so for the records, they have played only one T20 international in the last 15 months. We can always argue that they get enough experience in the IPL, but we should also not forget that even the IPL was a year back

The bowling department has been one of the flaws that India has now carried for generations with themselves. We have never produced a bowler that can literally scare an opponent. Yes, there have been moments of brilliance by someone or the other and there has always been promise, but that never expands into anything. The team that is going to the T20 world cup is carrying the same bowling attack as the previous tournament. A bowling attack that has shown promise in the one day format, but T20 again is an entirely different format and we have seen again and again how the Indian bowlers crumble under pressure

The Indian middle order is far from what you can call as balanced. Yes we do have returning names like Yuvraj and Raina, who are huge when it comes to the T20 format but then even those two have not played any games at the international arena in the last 6 months or so. When it comes to cricket, practice and form matters, and these two far away from what you can call as good form, plus you also have the short ball problem with both of them. One might think that M S Dhoni would prove to be saviors as far as the middle order is concerned, but his record in T20 internationals doesn’t say much either as he is yet to score a half century in the shorter format. His strike rate also happens to be only 114.88 per 100 balls; something that is highly under achieving as far as M S Dhoni is concerned.

Another major concern is regarding the selection of the spinners, the team has management has yet not been able to decide about whom to play and whom to not. Since Ravindra Jadeja sure to play, considering his all-round performance in the recent tournaments, the team management will have to take a decision on whether to give chances to a newly sparked Amit Mishra or to maintain their Ashwin love affair, a love affair which doesn’t seem to bring about any profits when it’s required the most.

With so much to improve and so many hurdles to overcome, it seems very unlikely that the Indian team has any major chance of winning this world T20. We do believe in miracle, and one can give the example of the 2007 t20 world cup triumph as one, but a team can be one time lucky. Will luck do a favor on the Indian team for the second time? Only time will tell.

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