Lights, camera, T20: Can India Clinch the Decider?

Trivandrum: Silent assassins, gentlemen who can be competitive without exchanging words, unpredictable – words fall short to describe the current New Zealand cricket team. Even India skipper Virat Kohli – who doesn’t mince his words – praised them saying, “New Zealand is the team which is not verbal or don’t do things that annoy you. But their body language and intensity is always right up there which we really appreciate.”

The Kiwis lived up to its reputation and levelled the T20I series 1-1 in the second fixture at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot on Saturday. All eyes, as usual like the ODI series, are now on the decider at Trivandrum on Tuesday.

India has never won a T20I series against New Zealand. In fact, the victory in the first rubber at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi last week was their first in six games. What should India to ensure their sleeves don’t loosen up; here are a few takeaways from the series so far.

These days, cricket is no more a bowler’s game and the Rajkot T20I said it loud and clear. The screws need to be tightened on the bowling department. Jasprit Bumrah, who secured the top spot in the ICC T20I bowlers’ rankings recently, believes every match is a learning experience for bowlers in T20 cricket. He also backed rookie pacer Mohammed Siraj to deliver in the next game.

The 23-year-old Siraj didn’t have a dream debut (4-0-53-1), but Bumrah is of the opinion that the Hyderabad boy will learn from his mistakes. “It’s okay, it was his first game. On a difficult wicket it’s always difficult. He’s coming into a new team, and so it takes time for a bowler to adjust. He’ll learn. As a bowler when you get hit, you learn a lot and so I think after this experience he’ll be a better bowler when he comes into the next match,” Bumrah said after the match, who remained wicketless too, but contained the batsmen (4-0-23-0).

Having made his debut in 2016, by now Bumrah understands the demands of international cricket. One missed opportunity, a catch or a run out, can prove lethal in the shortest format.

“You should never feel surprised in this format. On a given day, any batsman can hit you. But Colin Munro (who smashed 109 not out off 58 balls in Rajkot) was a bit lucky too. We dropped a few catches. I am not taking credit away. He did play well with a fair bit of experience in international cricket and the CPL,” he added. Munro was dropped on 79 by Yuzvendra Chahal off Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

India is slowly getting into the middle-order crisis, like it used to be in the nineties. Since the last few games, only the top order called the shots. “Eventually, we were not good enough with the bat. When you are chasing 200, all the batsmen need to chip in, or one batsman has to keeping going at a 200 strike-rate. I tried my best. MS (Dhoni) was very good at the end. But we were left with a very difficult task. It happens to a lot of batsmen, sometimes you are in good form, but you don’t get enough balls,” Kohli reasoned.

India also needs to finalise on their batting order before stepping into the third T20I. Ideally, they should continue with Shreyas Iyer at No 3, who looked in good touch (23 off 21).

Hardik Pandya, the star of the limited-over series against Australia, seems to have run out of steam but the batsmen receive plenty of support from the skipper and the support staff. “We back our batsmen though. We back Hardik, and its just a little glitch. After 13-14 overs, it gripped a bit. But we have no excuses, we weren’t good enough with the bat. There wasn’t any kind of dew. The ball got scuffed up (to help it turn).”

Pandya was deceived by a wrong one by leggie Ish Sodhi in Rajkot. The right-hander didn’t anticipate the trickery and stood shocked at the wicket, dismissed for 1.

Lastly, India should set short term goals to pocket the series; in order of preference, it should be Colin Munro’s downfall, reading Trent Boult and Ish Sodhi and then, fire with the bat.

If India ends up losing the series at home, it will be a kind of a record too.