Just like the preceding ODI series, the third and final Twenty20 match between India and New Zealand is a decider and while it is great news for fans as they have been spared a dead rubber, the India team management should be a bit worried.
Firstly, the Kiwis deserve full credit for pushing India hard. The visitors had the third and final one-dayer in the bag, a sublime run-chase taking the equation to 35 needed from 24 balls with six wickets in hand. Death overs specialists Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah saved the day for the Indians, just about.
T20 cricket is a bit of a lottery anyhow. So it’s not surprising the Kiwis have given the Indians a tough time. Especially since the Black Caps had won the first five T20 matches between the two nations, until the Indians opened their account in the first match of the ongoing series in Delhi. But a 40-run defeat in the second match put the pressure back on the Indians and irrespective of what happens today in Trivandrum, Virat Kohli knows New Zealand have given him a lot to munch on.
It has been a fairly successful year for the Indian team. They won the Test series at home against the Aussies, reached the Champions Trophy final, won all nine games across formats in Sri Lanka and beat Australia 4-1 in one-dayers at home.
But as they prepare for a massive season which includes away tours of South Africa and England leading up to the World Cup in England in 2019, the New Zealand series has shown India are good but still not quite there yet.
For starters, the middle-order continues to be a headache and MS Dhoni’s 37-ball 49 while chasing 197 in the second T20 has already set tongues wagging about his hitting prowess. Apart from the top three, the rest of the batting line-up is in a constant state of flux with either the names or positions undecided in both the 50 and 20-over formats.
Virat was playing another potentially match winning great innings. Lack of support seemed to suck the life out of the innings.#indvnz
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) November 4, 2017
Bowling has become a strong point for India over the last few seasons following the rise of seamers like Kumar, Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. But if Kumar and Bumrah don’t pick up wickets, things tend to fall apart. It did in the Champions Trophy final and happened again in the second T20 in Rajkot when both kept the scoring down but didn’t snare a single wicket.
Even so, this Indian team is one of the finest outfits in the game and the management knows it is very close to getting the formula right in white-ball cricket. India have a pool of close to 20 top-class players who can make it to the playing XI, so there is no dearth of options. But it also means the team might take a bit longer to realise the matrix isn’t working, simply because there are so many options to go through.
The New Zealand series has come at the right time for the Indian team. A competitive outfit has shown the Indians they can’t afford to fiddle with the team combination forever and still expect to win a series. Only battle-ready personnel who understand their role and position in the team will survive the onslaught once the men in blue travel outside Asia next season.
