India’s much-hyped batting line-up once again tottered while their porous bowling was laid bare even as their chances in the tournament have now effectively been relegated to the dustbins of history, barring some mathematical miracle, which is equally improbable and undeserved.
New Delhi: If there was any debate about the fallacy of India’s execution of almost all the facets of cricket in the Asia Cup 2022, all of that was brought to a dismal and decisive end at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday when they, once more, defended just seven runs in the last over and despite Arshdeep’s repeat decent display, it was all just too little and too late to keep India afloat. Sri Lanka were by far the better side in the exchanges in both innings and like the match against Pakistan, India’s much-hyped batting line-up once again tottered while their porous bowling was laid bare even as their chances in the tournament have now effectively been relegated to the dustbins of history, barring some mathematical miracle, which is equally improbable and undeserved.
Like the match with Pakistan, Arshdeep Singh was left to defend seven runs in the last over and like that match, this one too went to the fifth ball of the 20th over. But the results in both cases were the same, despite the young and much-castigated bowler’s best efforts. But then, when your batting, touted as one of the hottest in current cricket, fails to have even two people hitting big scores, there is precious little that can be expected of the bowling which is by far not India’s best.
Once again, India made a hash of the Powerplay after being sent in to bat, with the totally at sea KL Rahul adding to his own and the team’s misery. Skipper Rohit Sharma, much to his own and the team’s relief, finally got among serious runs and his third-wicket stand with Suryakumar Yadav gave India some hope of a good total to defend.
But that was not to be. After their 97-run stand, India lost both rapid succession and the middle-order once again simply folded without much of a fight, with Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant and Deepak Hooda re-attesting the gap been the mind and matter of India’s batting. The tail was once again a struggle, though Ravichandran Ashwin, who replaced Ravi Bishnoi in the line-up, did swing the willow for a bit.
Sri Lanka were superb. The Indian bowling which was so dependent on Bhuvneshwar Kumar to deliver, once again found him wanting and India were left with nothing in the first six overs or even beyond. Nissanka and Mendis stitched together a 97-run opening stand, which made sure that the middle-order stutter, when it came, was not enough to derail them.
Sri Lanka did stutter with two wickets falling at 97 and two at 110, but the seasoned pair of Bhanuka Rajapaksa and skipper Dasun Shanaka stormed India’s momentary ascendancy with the former carting the spinners and seamer alike. In the final analysis, India just didn’t have enough runs.
With the Asia Cup campaign almost at an end, the frantic need to repair the bowling and shoring it up with the frontline pace bowlers is imperative. But India’s real problem lies in the fact that, barring very few, this is the core of the Indian batting, even for the T20 World Cup. If this is how the plans go there as well, they might as well give up the ghost right now. To do otherwise, some out of the box decisions are becoming alarmingly vital.
