India have made the semifinals of three of the last four World Cups, but not once have they cleared the penultimate hurdle. The last time they reached the final of an ICC event was at the Champions Trophy in England in 2017; as far as World Cups go, India haven’t made it to the title round since the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2014, when they came second best to Sri Lanka.
The semifinal defeats have come with different personnel in different parts of the world against different opponents. The sequence began at the 50-over World Cup in Australia in 2015 when India were beaten by the host nation in Sydney. The following year, they were eliminated in the last-four stage by West Indies in Mumbai in the T20 World Cup while in 2019, New Zealand bested them on the reserve day in a low-scoring clash in Manchester.
Today, at the Adelaide Oval where India have had tremendous highs and one unforgettably debilitating low (36 all out, their lowest Test score), they will get another opportunity to put the semifinal hoodoo to rest. In his first ICC tournament as skipper, Rohit Sharma will seek to do what Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli together haven’t managed in the last seven years and there is no reason to believe he can’t, even if England are a fantastic white-ball side who have pioneered a radically aggressive approach to the shorter formats.
Yuvraj Singh, the mercurial left-hander who starred in India’s 2011 50-over World Cup triumph, has installed India as the favourites for Thursday, telling Moneycontrol, “When we didn’t make the final of the Asia Cup (in September), I said this may not be a popular statement but it’s a good result in the long run because from now on, they will know what their grey areas are. Rohit is a really good white-ball captain and this time, we have the right guys batting in the right positions, which wasn’t the case last year. Obviously, had Jasprit (Bumrah) been there, it would have been great, but Arshdeep is doing what he is good at, bowling at the death and knowing his strengths as a bowler. He has really come of age; even before he made his India debut, I felt he was among the top three death bowlers in the country. I have been talking to a couple of guys about their mindset playing the T20 World Cup, and I am happy with the space they are in.”
India’s preparations for the 2022 T20 World Cup have been meticulous, well thought out and immaculately detailed. Unlike last year when they stumbled into the T20 World Cup in the UAE, drained after an extended second phase of the IPL, they came into this tournament not just well-rested but also having had the luxury of a week-long acclimatisation and preparatory camp in Perth. The venue was chosen carefully, Rohit revealed before the start of the tournament. For one thing, Perth boasts some of the fastest, bounciest surfaces in Australia; for another, it’s closer in time zone to India, which allowed the team to gradually get used to the shock to the system that would have been more pronounced had they opted for Sydney or Melbourne, both five and a half hours ahead of India.
In a common-sensical bid to have a look at what players fit the roles Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid had delineated, India tried out as many as 29 players in their 35 T20 Internationals between the last World Cup in November last year and this October. The quest was not so much for specific names as types of players that met the requirements at different positions. It might appear as if India took the circuitous route to identify pretty much the same batsmen who played in the UAE last year – with the notable exception of Dinesh Karthik and Deepak Hooda – but these 35 games allowed the think-tank to be prepared for every eventuality.
That’s why there was little panic when first Ravindra Jadeja and later Bumrah were rendered unavailable for selection. Both men have been an integral part of the T20 set-up for several years now and are practically indispensable, but India had learnt their lessons from last year, when they punted on Hardik Pandya’s fitness and eventually had to play him as a specialist batsman who would bowl the occasional over and therefore irrevocably, unmanageably alter the balance of the side.
In Arshdeep Singh, they had a reasonable replacement – to the extent that Bumrah can be replaced – who is more than competent with the new ball and possesses the requisite skill to hold his own at the backend of an innings. Axar Patel might not be in the same league as Jadeja with either bat or in the field, but he acquitted himself wonderfully when he bowled consistently successfully in the Powerplays leading up to the World Cup. If he has been only a bit player here, it’s because the pace-friendly conditions have compelled Rohit to hold him back until after the field restrictions have been lifted.
When one casts the mind’s eye back to the previous semifinal meltdowns, the balance sheet is quite telling. In Sydney in 2015, India were outbatted by Michael Clarke’s Australia, who soared on the back of a Steve Smith hundred. In Mumbai, India sold themselves at least 25 runs short on an absolute shirtfront, settling for running West Indies ragged in the park when the nature of the surface and the potential for dew called for a less conservative attitude. And in Manchester, India’s short-sightedness in identifying a proper No. 4 came back to hurt them badly. Throughout that 50-over World Cup, they had seldom been put under pressure because the top three of Rohit, Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli were in supreme touch. When it came to the crunch at Old Trafford on an overcast reserve day with Trent Boult and Tim Southee getting the ball to hoop around corners, that short-sightedness cost them dear as Rishabh Pant was thrust hurriedly into that crucial slot.
By virtue of having made all the right moves and embarked on a well-charted journey to give themselves their best shot at the title, India find themselves in a far happier space, something Yuvraj has alluded to. Kohli’s whole-hearted transformation back into one of the ‘boys’ has been as vital to that development as Suryakumar Yadav’s emergence as the most talked about T20 batsman in the world. Mohammed Shami’s late inclusion has lent thrust and experience to the bowling and Hardik Pandya’s return as a four-over bowler means there is enough insurance in case one of the bowlers has an off day.
None of this means India are assured of a cakewalk into Sunday’s final. But in T20 cricket specifically, preparation is non-negotiable and India can give themselves a pat on the back for having done due diligence and followed the processes that have allowed them to get to this position. It’s now a matter of trusting those processes, sticking to their disciplines and distancing themselves from the semifinal monkey clinging to their back. Today's match could herald the disappearance of the invisible simian.
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