India suffered a shock exit at the T20 World Cup 2021 in the UAE, eliminated in the group stage courtesy of disappointing losses to Pakistan and New Zealand as the batters put up a dismal show.
Virat Kohli stepped down as the skipper and Ravi Shastri’s tenure as head coach ended. The Men In Blue ushered into a period of change under the new captain-coach pair of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid.
Sharma is the most successful IPL captain – having won 5 titles as Mumbai Indians’ captain and 6 overall – and Dravid played IPL cricket for six seasons and followed it up with head coach stints for Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals.
Indian batsman have modified their batting approach
Both of them know the T20 game inside out and what is required in terms of the message being sent to the players. So when both of them came together for the first time, the main thing they wanted to inculcate in the dressing room was to not “create any confusion amongst the group.”
“When he [Dravid] became the coach here, we met and we sat together in a room for a while and we discussed how we want to take this team forward. He was pretty much on the same thought process of what I was thinking. So, it made it [a] little easier for me to give out the clear messages to the boys because we don’t want to create any confusion amongst the group,” Rohit said recently.
Confusion, lack of role clarity, lack of insurance and security for players upon failing, a conservative brand of cricket – all the things that were present in the Indian team under Kohli-Shastri needed to be banished aside was the first agenda of Sharma-Dravid.
“That is something we spoke about and of course we wanted to change our style of cricket as well. We wanted to play in a certain way in all three formats and he was ready to accept all of that. So far, it has been really, really good. I’m looking forward to achieving something really, really great under his coaching.”
To attain something “really, really great”, India are on the right track; the results on the field are as clear evidence as they could be: since the end of the T20 World Cup last year, India have won 6 T20Is series, and drew one vs South Africa when a second-string side played the Protea.
Since the elimination from the T20 World Cup in UAE, India have played 24 T20Is and won 19 of them – the most in the world during this period.
Rohit and Dravid have made some significant attitudinal changes – which means throwing the previous conservative batting method and adopting the en vogue gung-ho, aggressive, take-more-risks-in-search-of-boundaries method.
“After the T20 World Cup in Dubai, when we didn’t qualify [for the semi-finals], we felt that there needs to be a change in our attitude, in our approach in how we play the game. So, we had a clear message given to the boys and they were ready to accept the challenge,” Rohit said.
And the batters have shown their keenness in obeying the demands of their management:
In T20Is this year, India have scored their runs at a rate of 9.29 per over, their best in a year where they have played more than one match. Only New Zealand (9.83) have scored at a faster rate this year than India.
Rohit Sharma has his eyes set on the T20 World Cup 2022
Rohit Sharma himself has led from the front: scoring at a much quicker rate at the start of his innings, willing to attack the bowlers right from the first over.
From January 2019 to the end of the last year’s T20 World Cup, he had scored at a strike rate of 139. in the first six overs in T20Is. Since the start of 2022, that T20I powerplay strike rate has jumped up to 147!
“If the messages are clear from the captain and the coach, and where the team is trying to head, the individuals will definitely try and do that. And for that they need freedom, they need clarity, which is what we are trying to do. We are trying to give them as much freedom as possible,” the skipper explained.
The fact that even Virat Kohli – who had generally started off conservatively and looked to settle first before attacking – has also bought into this gung-ho approach – as displayed in his 6-ball 11 vs England where he played four attacking shots – is a big vindication for Rohit-Dravid that Indian batting is on the right track for the T20 World Cup 2022.
