Is This The Biggest Problem With Indian Cricket Team?

For any team to prosper in the T20 format, it is crucial that the top order is on absolute fire. Only strong starts with the bat in the powerplay can help teams maintain consistency in terms of winning percentage. 

This is exactly the problem with the Indian cricket team at this moment as they have been largely inconsistent with their recent games. This was again on display in the game against South Africa last night when India was comprehensively beaten by the visiting team.

At the top of the order, Shubman Gill and Surya Kumar Yadav are failing consistently, which is adding enormous pressure on the middle order. As if this wasn’t enough, Axar Patel is being sent up the order and he’s been wasting too much time in the middle which in turn piles pressure on Hardik and Jitesh. This alteration in the batting order is proving to be fatal. 

Shivam Dubey is anyway a touch and go player, so his consistency is bound to be incoherent. But this needs to be balanced by a strong top order and explosive middle order. When this balance is missed, India is always bound to struggle in the big games and that’s exactly what’s happening now. 

Tilak Varma is performing pretty well, but he needs contribution from the rest of the order as well. Bringing a batting allrounder like Nitish Reddy, in the place of Shivam Dubey can change the personnel to a positive degree as well. But this is a team composition call that must be taken by the management.

What is for certain is that India is clearly struggling to get consistent results, and the composition needs to be altered at the earliest if this problem is to be rectified.