New Delhi: As the Indian cricket team continues to struggle a tough time in T20 World Cup 2021, experts’ opinions are continuously rolling in. Similarly former England cricketer Monty Panesar believes that captain Virat Kohli coach Ravi Shastri and mentor MS Dhoni don’t seem to be on the same page, whatever it is they needs to sit down and sort things out quickly.
India had kicked off their T20 World Cup campaign on an embarrassing note, losing to arch-rivals Pakistan by 10 wickets. Team India got another setback when they suffered an eight-wicket defeat against New Zealand in their second match in the tournament. With this India lost their encounters against the other two top ranked teams in their group.
While tosses haven’t gone in Kohli’s favour, Panesar feels the India skipper, head coach and mentor need to come up with a strategy to get the team out of the current rut.
“Toss played a crucial role in the tournament. In UAE, the team who wins the toss first, they have an upper hand. If India had won the toss, things would have been different. Virat doesn’t have the best XI at the moment. He is low on confidence. Virat, Ravi and Dhoni need to sit down and sort this out quickly as some easy games are coming up. They need to work out things in terms of approach, play and strategy,” Panesar was quoted as saying to TimesOfIndia.Com.
India started the campaign as ‘Hot favorites’ but currently India’s semi-finals qualification hopes hang by a thread. Only if the team wins all three of their remaining matches and India will have to ensure that they win by a big margin since their net run-rate is poor, then the favour would be Kohli’s men will finish in the top four. But for that to happen, the entire squad needs to gear up for the upcoming matches, which according to Panesar, isn’t the case at the moment.
” India can still qualify. They can still turn it around. But it needs a lot of things and all will depend on Virat, Ravi and Dhoni. Virat, Ravi and Dhoni need to be on the same page. I believe they are not. People will remember Virat as a great batsman and massive chaser but will always criticise him as a leader because he couldn’t do anything when the team was under crisis and he failed to turn it around. India need to win all the three games massively. They need to win their remaining games by a huge margin so that their run rate goes up. Let’s not think what math says, they need to perform (at) 200 percent and need to pray the other team’s results go as per their wish. They are still not out of the tournament,” Panesar further added.
“Cricket is a funny game. India need to win the three games for Virat Kohli. It will be a nice send off to the departing captain. You want to see Virat end on a high. He is such a great player. This shouldn’t happen with him,” Panesar concluded.
India will next be seen playing against Afghanistan on Wednesday followed by Scotland and Namibia.
