4 Issues team India is facing ahead of T20 World Cup 2020

It’s unfortunate that the Indian T20I outfit does not look like at the same level as their Test and One-Day International teams, in spite of the fact that they play host to the most-competitive T20 League in the world- IPL. The biggest reason behind this state is that India has, for long, treated T20 as a poor man’s One-Day cricket. And, while that approach has worked in 50-over cricket, it had led to their undoing on a multitude of times.

The latest loss to the West Indies at Thiruvananthapuram was another validation of the aforementioned fact. With just a handful of T20Is remaining before the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia, there are several issues that Virat Kohli and the team-management will have to sort out. And, in this article, we will have a look the four issues India is facing India in T20Is at the moment.

Here’s a look:

4. Sloppy fielding and catching

Over 4.2. Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowls a beautiful knuckle-ball one that induces a mistimed shot from Lendl Simmons, who swung hard at the ball and scooped straight down Washington Sundar’s throat at mid-off, only to see the off-spinner drop a sitter. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who isn’t enjoying a great comeback after a long layoff is in agony. Kohli is furious; Sundar is in disarray. 

But, the agony wasn’t going to end there for Bhuvi and Team India. One ball later, the batsman had changed, the length of the delivery had changed, the fielder in question had changed, but sadly, for India and Bhuvneshwar, the result was pretty much the same. This time it was Pant, who after having taken Evin Lewis’ catch, proceeded to shell it at the very last moment.

Both batsmen were given a reprieve in a space of three deliveries, and they made India pay for it. West Indies put on their highest 1st wicket-stand (73) this year and Lendl Simmons registered his first T20I half-century since that World T20 semi-final in Mumbai, three and a half years ago. There’s an old cliche, “Catches win you matches”.

It couldn’t have been vindicated enough than it was in the second T20I. And, unfortunately, whether it is slip-fielding in Test cricket or the out-field catching in white-ball cricket, shelling catches have started to become a trend now in Indian cricket. And, as Kohli rightly said, you can score as many runs as you want, but if you are not taking those catches in a tight game, big players will make you pay for it big-time. The fielding in the first T20I wasn’t great either.