27 June 2024 Punjab Khabarnama : England had smelled blood in Adelaide. They won the toss and opted to bowl first in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup, knowing fully well that they could bully India. And they did. Former England captain Paul Collingwood recently revealed that England were aware that their best option of beating India would be to bowl first and take advantage of the opposition’s lily-livered approach. India managed 168. Rohit Sharma hit 27 off 28 balls. Virat Kohli scored 50 off 40 balls. India managed 168 in 20 overs. England chased the target down in 16 overs without losing a wicket.
That evening in Adelaide exposed the gulf in mindset between India and eventual champions England. Despite the big names in the side, India were playing catch-up. England were playing a different brand of T20 cricket — a slam-bang approach that was pioneered by Eoin Morgan in the ODI World Cup in 2019.
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Cut to June 2024, India and England are heading into another T20 World Cup semifinal, this time in Guyana. And the England camp is fully aware that India can’t be bullied this time. England coach Matthew Mott spoke about being wary of a ‘different’ India when he addressed the press on the eve of the semi-final.
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“Probably the only thing that we’ve discussed is that we feel that they’re a very different team to that semi-final. I think the way that they’ve approached it in the last couple of years is certainly taking the game on extremely hard in the powerplay,” Mott said.
When pressed harder, he explained: “Well, I think when we go back to that semi-final, obviously on a good pitch in Adelaide, we put India in and that was a risk. But I thought we felt they weren’t sure what a good score was. I think the approach now is they would come at us hard and try and maximise that, maybe try and put it out of our reach,” he added.
India have scored at a rate of 8-and-a-half runs in the powerplay in T20 internationals since the start of 2023 – a marginal, but significant increase (8.12 to 8.30) in the scoring rate from 2022. In the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies, India have been refreshingly positive in the powerplay.
Take the Super 8 match against Australia for instance – Mitchell Marsh and his men tried to put pressure on India by winning the toss and opting to bowl in St Lucia. They got the big wicket of Virat Kohli for 0. The old Indian side would have played it safe after losing their best batter as early as the second over of the World Cup contest. However, this was a new Team India. This was Rohit Sharma’s ruthless India. The captain led from the front. In the very next over, he hit Australia’s best bowler – Mitchell Starc for four sixes in a 29-run over. Rohit taking down Starc was more than just a counter-attack. It was a message to the cricket world that India plays a different cricket brand in T20Is. India went on to post 205 — the highest total against Australia in T20 World Cup history — and it proved too much in the end for Australia.
