Former England captain Michael Vaughan stated on Friday that India has accomplished “absolutely nothing” since they won the World Cup on their home soil in 2011 and that they have been the most under-performing white-ball team in the history of the sport. Following the squad’s elimination from the T20 World Cup, Vaughan placed blame for the lack of performance on the antiquated attitude taken by the team during white ball games. According to what Vaughan said in his column for ‘The Telegraph,’ “India are the most under-performing white-ball team in the history of the sport.”
“Every player in the globe who competes in the Indian Premier League boasts about how much the experience improves their game, but what have India’s athletes ever accomplished?”
What have they done in the years after they won the 50 over World Cup on their home turf in 2011? Nothing. India has been playing a white-ball game for years, despite the fact that it is now considered archaic.”
Dinesh Karthik was the player of choice for India in the first four Super 12 matches, despite the fact that the team already had Rishabh Pant, an extraordinarily gifted player, on the roster. They include the speedy left-hander who played in the final match of the group stage against Zimbabwe and then in the semifinal.
However, even in those two games, Pant was not used to his full potential because he entered the game to bat at positions 5 and 6, respectively, when there were only a few overs left.
Vaughan stated that he does not understand India’s strategy in the shortest format of the game.
“It is astounding that they have not maximised the potential of someone like Rishabh Pant. In this day and age, you need to put him in charge of launching it “he had written.
“I just can’t believe how well they play Twenty20 cricket considering how much talent they have. They have the personnel, but they are lacking the procedures necessary to do the task. They have no choice but to attempt it.
“As a result of the absence of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumarh and star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, the Indian bowlers made a pitiful showing while defending 169 against England. Alex Hales and Jos Buttler scored 63 for 0 in the powerplay before reaching the target with four overs to spare.
Vaughan questioned why the opposing team’s bowlers were given the first five overs to bowl at a comfortable pace.
“They have a player named Arshdeep Singh who bowls with a left hand and swings the ball back to the right-handers. So, how do they go about defending the score of 168? They bowled with an outswinging action from Bhuvneshwar Kumar so that Jos Buttler and Alex Hales would have width.
“Madness. Where is the left-arm seamer swinging the ball in to Buttler and Hales in the first over?” Compress them to save space. Do not provide them the opportunity to get off to a flying start in the first over and ease their jitters by doing so.”
The 48-year-old also brought up the fact that the current Indian team does not have a lot of bowling options and said that the most important thing right now is to have more batting all-rounders. This is something that spin guru Anil Kumble has also brought up.
“How is it that they only have five bowling options when it wasn’t that long ago that all of India’s top six players, including Sachin Tendulkar, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, and even Sourav Ganguly, were able to bowl at least a little bit?
“Since the batsmen don’t bowl, the captain can only choose between five different strategies. They do not bat deep enough, and they do not have any spin tricks in their arsenal. (India) Their bowling choices are too few.” The decision made by India’s team management to bench leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal for the entirety of the tournament was another critical error that cost India dearly.
“It is common knowledge that in Twenty20 cricket, a team needs a spinner who is capable of turning the ball in both directions. There are lots of leg spinners in India’s lineup. Where can we find them?” In addition to this, he cast doubt on India’s performance in major ICC tournaments, stating that he believes the team needs to achieve greater success in order to do justice to the level of talent possessed by its players.
“India are so significant to the sport of cricket that it is played all over the world, yet despite all of the advantages India have, they need to win more. Even though the 2016 World T20 was held in their home country, they were not able to advance to the final. They had no presence whatsoever the year before, “Vaughan was the author.
“This time, beating Pakistan in the group stages required an outrageous innings by Virat Kohli, probably the best in the history of T20. They have a tremendous amount of untapped potential given their current skill levels.”