On Sunday (December 6) India extended its unbeaten streak in T20 Internationals (T20Is) to 10 matches by registering a series triumph over Australia with one game to spare. They are now ranked third in the list of most consecutive victories in this format and placed only behind Afghanistan, who still hold the first two spots with 11 (in 2016-17) and 12 (2018-19) wins on a trot.
Well, whether India can top the list or not, that only time will tell but the past 14 months have been nothing short of a renaissance for Virat Kohli’s boys in T20I cricket. After years of average performances in international T20s, they have finally tightened their game and managed to achieve the consistency, which was missing in the past. And now it won’t be an exaggeration if we say that the present Indian team feels more comfortable in T20Is than the 50-over format.
In this piece we will try to highlight the key factors which have helped the ‘Men in Blue’ to change their fortunes in this ‘hit out or get out’ format of the game.
Taking T20Is more seriously
Despite winning the inaugural World T20 as well as organising the most lucrative annual T20 league in the world – Indian Premier League (IPL) – Indian cricket, for many years did not take the 20-over version seriously at the international level. They used to treat this format as a shorter version of a 50-over game. However, following years of disappointment and trophy drought, in recent times this mentality has changed quite a bit. Now-a-days all over the world the number of T20Is have increased drastically and in order to join the bandwagon India too have approached this format with a brand new mindset, especially after the 2019 50-over World Cup.
Being more proactive as a batting unit
Previously, India were often being criticised as a conservative T20I side, especially in the batting department. Considering modern T20 standards the strike-rates of some of India’s top batsmen are still not up to the mark and over the years we have noticed that India’s top three batters were reluctant to go after the bowlers in the powerplay. Instead, they preferred keeping wickets in hand and scoring big in the last eight overs.
Thankfully, after KL Rahul’s promotion at the top this approach has taken a backseat and in recent series we have noticed India batsmen being more proactive throughout, especially when the field restrictions are on. For instance, Virat Kohli’s career strike-rate in T20Is is 138.41 but in past 14 months (since October 1st, 2019) he is striking at 161.72. A similar trend has been noticed in the strike rates of the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey during this timeframe. Thanks to this refreshing change in batting approach, of late, India have posted and chased down big totals more often.
Flexibility in the bowling department
We can now safely say that this Indian T20I side is not over dependent on the likes of Jasprit Bumrah or their wrist-spinners to take bulk of the wickets. Thanks to the IPL, the set-up has seen the rise of youngsters like Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Navdeep Saini and others who have done of commendable job with the ball. In fact, in the past 14 months some of these newcomers have better records than the other established bowlers like Bumrah or Ravindra Jadeja. Now there is flexibility in this bowling attack and the skipper has the luxury of implementing the horses for courses approach.
The IPL factor
The IPL is arguably the most competitive T20 tournament in the world and after being exposed on that platform the young and upcoming Indian cricketers come to the international scheme of things with a fair bit of maturity. Furthermore, the IPL has also helped the Indian team management to understand the best possible way to utilise a cricketer. For instance, after Sundar’s success in the IPL as a powerplay specialist, he has been allotted to do the same job in the blue jersey, despite India having a fair bit of pace bowling options who can bowl in the first six overs. Similarly, Rahul’s decent glovework behind the stumps in the IPL has probably convinced the Indian team management to use him as a keeper-batsman in white-ball cricket.
Nevertheless, with two T20 World Cups scheduled to take place in the next couple of years, this golden phase of India’s T20I cricket couldn’t have come at a better time. Now the challenge for Kohli’s men is to sustain this momentum.