CHENNAI: Since the moment India suffered a heavy defeat to South Africa on Sunday, and with the West Indies pummelling Zimbabwe the following day, the tagline of the ongoing T20 World Cup, “Feel the thrill” would have made way for “Feel the jitters” in the anxious minds of Team India fans.
Who would’ve foreseen this? Instead of riding the crest of a wave on serene, placid waters, as was expected of it, India has sailed into choppy waters with the spectre of meeting its Waterloo ominously lurking beneath. What started off as a feel-good movie with the overwhelming prospect of a blissful end, has now acquired worrying shades of a Hitchcock movie with all signs pointing to a horrific climax. It’s amazing how the outcome of one match, however dire the performance may have been in that, can have a baleful influence on the collective perception of a nation of 1.45 billion. So indomitable did the current Indian team appear at the start of the tournament that it seemed the only way to stop its inexorable march to the promised land would be to make it pit its wits against a team of extraterrestrials, much like how Arnold Schwarzenegger and his elite rescue team confront their grotesque adversary in the cult classic Predator.
But, in a span of 18.5 overs, we find ourselves lurching on the highway to doom and gloom with there being no access to even the tiniest of windows from where we could spot a ray of hope.
India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, however, put on a brave face at the customary pre-match press conference. Predictably, he had to contend with a flurry of questions surrounding the inexplicable failure of top-order batters. “If we focus so much on one person (Abhishek Sharma), then obviously, that person also will be under pressure. When he was scoring 80, 70, 90 in 30 balls or 100 in 40, 50 balls, that time nobody was discussing.
“Our job is to keep him in a good frame of mind. Once he starts hitting the ball again, you’ll see the same Abhishek again. Now, in T20s, nobody can give a guarantee that he will do it in the next match. So, I think it’s not far (Abhishek getting a big score).”
To another similar query on Tilak Varma’s patchy form, Kotak reposed faith in the 23-year-old's resilience. “There are no issues with Tilak because in the Pakistan game, our target (while batting first) was 175, and on that wicket that was good enough. Ishan gave a good start. The ball was spinning there (in Colombo),” he said.
“So, for Tilak also it is a matter of two boundaries. Sometimes a batsman doesn’t get those balls. If he is at 34-35 in the 30th or 32nd ball, or at 28 in the 26th ball, if he gets one boundary, two boundaries and a six, then he will get a move on. “So, I don’t think there is a question of defending the ball. Neither does he have any such instruction nor does he think so himself. So, there is no tension over Tilak or Abhishek,” Kotak added.