India Exit From T20 World Cup 2022: 4 Reasons Why Men In Blue Failed To Enter Final

Adelaide, November 10: The bionic batting line-up of England fired in full force in the semifinal at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday (November 10) to knock India out of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022.

While England delivered the phantom punch, the exit of India had few behind the scene reasons to it. Here we are analysing those causes of India defeat.

1. Non-selection of Chahal

Yuzvendra Chahal has always been termed as India’s main weapon in white ball formats. In fact, he is India’s second highest wicket-taker in T20I cricket behind Bhuvneshwar Kumar. But the leg-spinner never got a chance to play in the T20 World Cup 2022. Left-arm spinner Axar Patel found a place in the 11 because of the perceived balance he brings to the side while coming out at 11.

But Axar never delivered with bat or ball. Chahal at least could have given a chance against England, against whom he has a wonderful record. But India did not change the template.

2. KL Rahul not firing

KL Rahul looked so out of sorts in the first three matches. Those 3 matches produced just 22 runs and he redeemed himself a bit with two back-to-back fifties against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. How wrong we were to take it as a sign of resurgence of Rahul. It was a crunch match against England, something as big as a T20 World Cup semifinal.

But Rahul was absent and got out early in the innings, edging Chris Woakes to Jos Buttler behind the stumps. After all, 128 runs from 6 matches at an average of 21 and a strike rate of 120 just did not suit a T20 opener.

3. Underperforming Rohit Sharma

The Indian captain is certainly one of the best white ball batters around but that awesome Hitman was never really present in Australia. All Rohit could manage was a 116 runs from 6 matches and that because of 20+ score in the semis against England.

But his strike-rate was a woeful 106.42 and averaged 19.33 in the T20 WC 2022. It was not the kind of stats the captain and premier batter of a team would want to have against his name in a World Cup.

4. Rishabh Pant or Dinesh Karthik?

India team took Dinesh Karthik as the designated finisher in the team but there was hardly anything like that from him. Karthik had a good chance to deliver one blow and finish the match against Pakistan but he got out to add to the existing tension. India batters, and batsmen in general, struggled in the Perth match against South Africa. But a 15-ball 6 and a strike-rate of 40 was the worst among all the batters.

Karthik had good 4 overs or so to make an impact against Bangladesh but was run out for a 5-ball 7. When Karthik was not delivering, the team management went back to Rishabh Pant but it was too late a measure. On the hindsight, the team management should have given a go for Pant as he is a left-hander too, bringing in a bit of variety despite an underwhelming T20 record.