Does it hurt?
If you are a true Indian cricket fan, the answer is probably yes. Today’s loss feels personal.
In our cricket-frenzied nation, every time the selected 11 players walk out onto the field, they carry the tremendous burden of expectations of 1.4 billion people on their shoulders. Their performances affect not only their team, but an entire nation.
The rest of the nation puts their faith in these 11 players, trust them to live up to their expectations, and live the life of a cricket star vicariously through these players. We fans follow their every move, whether it’s on social media or TV, and develop a sense of attachment to them. We know these players. They are our own.
When our own players lose like this, that too in a World Cup semi-final, we feel betrayed.
We know what it’s like to lose an important match. All too well.
After the ancient 2013 Champions Trophy win, we lost the 2014 T20 World Cup final to Sri Lanka. We were heartbroken, but brushed it aside and got up again, ready for the next one.
After going on a rampage and winning game after game in the group stage of the 2015 ODI World Cup, we got pulverized by Australia in the semi-final. Another shock. Another heartbreak. But we lived to see another day.
After scraping through to the semi-final after Dhoni’s infamous last-ball run-out against Bangladesh in the 2016 T20 World Cup group stage match, we believed our time to win the cup had come. West Indies proved us wrong by bludgeoning our bowlers into oblivion. Virat Kohli, after having scoring 89*(47) in the first innings and also bowling the last over in the second innings, was left devastated, along with the rest of India. We had had enough heartbreaks.
We finally made it to the final of the 2017 ODI Champions Trophy and faced off against our arch-rivals, Pakistan. After having beaten them already earlier in the tournament, we thought this match would be a breeze. We were proven wrong again as Fakhar Zaman and co. tormented us and made and entire nation weep.
After waiting 2 years, we got to the 2019 ODI World Cup, where Rohit Sharma wreaked havoc, scoring century after century in the group stage. We faced off against New Zealand in the semi-final, and lo and behold, we got demolished by them too. Another heartbreak. The pain was getting unbearable now.
After the carnage of COVID-19, we got respite in the form of a 2021 T20 World Cup. After 5 heartbreaks in the past 8 years, we were desperate to do well. Guess what? We lost the opening game in the group stage to Pakistan by 10 wickets. We also lost the next one to New Zealand. Despite bashing the minnow teams of Afghanistan, Scotland, and Namibia, we made a spectacular group stage exit, forget semis this time. What happens in a scenario like this, especially after 5 World Cup debacles over the past 8 years? The country goes out for blood, that’s what.
The calls to sack players and bring about a complete overhaul of the system grew louder and the BCCI obliged. Virat Kohli had already resigned from T20I captaincy, but the BCCI sacked him from ODI captaincy too just for good measure. Kohli also soon resigned from Test captaincy, and Ravi Shastri retired.
Rohit Sharma became the Captain of India in all 3 formats, along with a new Head Coach, Rahul Dravid. There was a renewed sense of hope with talks of a new “aggressive” batting approach with increased levels of “intent”. It seemed to work. India started scoring more and more and won heaps of bilateral series. We looked unstoppable.
The dress rehearsal for the 2022 T20 World Cup began with the 2022 T20 Asia Cup. After dominating all the opposition teams for the past year, we had moved on from the 2021 T20 World Cup disaster. We even beat Pakistan and took revenge in the opening group stage game.
Those old wounds however, were soon not just reopened, but brutally dug into, as both Pakistan and Sri Lanka hammered us in the Super 4 stage and knocked India out of the Asia Cup.
Were we really that bad? We had prematurely assumed that the Asia Cup would be a cakewalk, but we couldn’t even make the finals here. What would happen in the World Cup against the other top sides?
We arrived in Australia early for the 2022 T20 World Cup, and even played a few warmup matches. When we beat Pakistan in the opening group stage game in a thriller and took revenge for last year’s and the Asia Cup’s humiliation, all of India breathed a sigh of relief. Diwali was made brighter by this win and a new sense of hope was rekindled along with the diyas in India. Despite losing to South Africa in a tight finish, we managed to beat Bangladesh, Netherlands, and Zimbabwe and qualify for the semi-finals. This was it. Everything was going according to plan. Parallels were drawn between our 2011 ODI World Cup and this one, and everyone was convinced that we’d end our 15-year-old wait for a T20 World Cup. Pakistan stunned New Zealand in the first semi-final and headed over to Melbourne for the final. All of India went mad over the mouth-watering prospect of an India-Pakistan final and forgot about the task at hand. We had to beat England first.
England won the toss, and despite being put in to bat by Jos Buttler, Rohit Sharma claimed that he would have batted first anyways. The semi-final commenced and all the talks of playing “aggressively” and “with intent” went out the window. KL Rahul got out early, as he usually does in a high-pressure knockout game, leaving Rohit and Kohli to rebuild the innings. England bowled well and Rohit and Kohli just couldn’t score boundaries. Every shot seemed to reach the hands of the fielders. They were everywhere.
Rohit departed after a painful-to-watch 27(28) and the No.1 T20I batsman, Suryakumar Yadav, followed him into the dressing room, scoring only 14(10). Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya rebuilt the innings, but could not score boundaries easily. The match was doomed to an early death. Yet, Virat and Hardik Pandya fought against all odds and resurrected the innings. Virat fell after scoring 50(40), but Hardik continued fighting and went berserk in the final few overs, ending with 63(33) and taking India from oblivion to a decent, possibly defendable total of 168 runs.
It would take miraculous bowling from India to restrict this monstrous England side, which batted till No. 10. We needed early wickets. Instead, what we got was a scene straight out of a horror flick. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was brought on to dismiss Jos Buttler with swing, but instead, he got creamed for 13 runs off the first over. Each bowler who came was hammered into oblivion as England batted as if they had a flight to catch in the next hour. India’s famed bowlers were treated like rag dolls by the opening pair of Jos Buttler 80*(49) and Alex Hales 86*(47), reaching the target of 169 in only 16 overs. As we witnessed every bowler lining up to get smashed like bowling machines in the nets, our hopes and dreams all came crashing down. We’d seen this before. Too many times. The trauma of Kumar Sangakkara, Steve Smith, Aaron Finch, Lendl Simmons, Andre Russell, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan murdering our bowlers flashed before our eyes. It had happened again. And before we knew it, our World Cup was over. Again.
We’ve clearly made losing in the knockout games a habit. We perform brilliantly in the other matches, but crumble under pressure when it matters the most. The only question remains: what the hell do we do now? We’ve tried everything. Changing the players, the captain, the coach, the jersey, the advertisements, the approach, even the BCCI President for God’s sake.
India will heal from this. We always do. It’s not like we don’t have experience. But the Indian management needs to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror and find some answers.
When the team practiced batting aggressively for an entire year, despite the risk of losing wickets, and the approach actually worked, why did they suddenly go back into their shell in the all-important semi-final?
How is it that the players who have been vociferously backed in the months and weeks leading up to the knockout matches are suddenly dropped or changed inexplicably? In 2021, Yuzvendra Chahal was inexplicably dropped from the World Cup squad to accommodate Rahul Chahar and “mystery spinner” Varun Chakravarthy, despite Chahal having played the majority of matches earlier. Chahal was brought back after the World Cup, dropping the other 2 spinners picked in his place, and selected for the 2022 World Cup. Yet, once again, he inexplicably didn’t get to play a single match in the World Cup, in wrist-spinner-friendly conditions. Dinesh Karthik was backed as the “finisher” for an entire year leading up to this World Cup, but inexplicably dropped 1 match before the semi-final.
Mohammad Shami wasn’t selected for a single T20I after the 2021 World Cup, but suddenly selected in the 2022 World Cup and played every game, whereas the designated “death bowler”, Harshal Patel, didn’t get a single game. Deepak Hooda was dropped after a single game.
While the captain and the coach preach about open communication and transparency in selection and making the players feel secure about their place and role in their side, the exact opposite is done in the actual tournaments. What is going on in the dressing room?
With the next T20 World Cup set to be in 2024, there might be a few senior players from this side who will be either sacked or retire by then. India always seem to be doing things right throughout the year, but then fall into absolute pandemonium during crucial matches in World Cups. Why is this happening? That’s for the “team management” to decide.
But one thing is for sure. The team will see more changes. Again. Hardik Pandya has been named T20I captain for the upcoming Tour of New Zealand this month, with Rishabh Pant as his vice-captain. It may be a sign of things to come.
Until then, we cricket fans will cry ourselves to sleep and wait. Despite all odds, we will hope. We never learn, do we? We will pray for the day when we go to sleep crying happy tears. We will dream once again of the day when our Captain is holding the World Cup aloft in his arms.
And that day shall be glorious.
Pain !!!