Defeat against West Indies is further proof that India’s Twenty20 squad needs a thorough shake-up

There was a marked contrast between the two teams in Jamaica on Sunday. On one hand, you had a team of Twenty20 International specialists, who earn their bread by playing franchise-based leagues in (almost) every country that has one.

On the other, you had a team who did not bother to even change their squad from the five-match One-Day International series and had decided much before the Caribbean tour that they would use the same set of players for this one-off Twenty20 International. The result, a thumping win for the star-studded West Indies against India, should not come as a surprise.

While cricket, in general, is a game of small margins, T20 is a format that exaggerates those margins with a powerful microscope. Despite the ease of West Indies’ victory, it’s fair to say that Sunday’s match was decided by a few minor events. But looking at these fine margins, should not take away from the fact that, in the bigger picture, India’s Twenty20 squad needs a definite, if not thorough, shake-up.

The missed chances

For the record, India could still have won this match, had they put in a good shift on field. Chasing 191, in the second over of the innings, Ravichandran Ashwin beat Chris Gayle from around the wicket with a ball that didn’t turn. It missed the off-stump by inches, but Mahendra Singh Dhoni – the man with the fastest hands in the east – completely missed it, with Gayle lazily leaving his back-foot outside the crease. Sure, the self-proclaimed Universe Boss did not win West Indies the match, as he played spectator to fireworks from Evin Lewis at the other end, but getting a big name early in the chase would have been the perfect start for India.

And then came the dropped catches. If India had taken either of the chances offered by Lewis, we would not be here talking about a wonderful 62-ball 125, replete with 12 hits beyond the fence, a couple of which were nearly beyond the ground.

A skier when he was on 46 off 22 balls, with Virat Kohli running in from long-on and Mohammed Shami running across his captain. Kohli called for it, Shami did not hear it, and while they avoided each other, Kohli was left giving death-stares when the catch was dropped. And in the very next over, when Lewis was on 55 off 26 balls, he skied another. And this time, Dinesh Karthik simply misjudged the trajectory in the deep. That’s three chances in the first seven overs of a chase that could have changed the match. By the time Dhoni missed another stumping, this time of Marlon Samuels (when was the last time Dhoni missed two stumpings in a match?) it was already too late.

The bigger picture

Having said all that, Team India needs a serious rejig at the way they approach the shortest format. First things first, it was a one-off T20I in the faraway islands of Caribbean. So it was perhaps a logistical decision, as much as a cricketing one, that India chose to field the same squad from the ODIs.

Then again, this is not a one-off. India are habitually selecting similar squads for T20Is and ODIs even when they play series at home. While there is a token modification often, the core squad in both formats remain the same. Against England earlier this year, the only T20 specialists included in the squad were Rishabh Pant, Suresh Raina, Mandeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal. While Pant and Chahal are bankable stars in the format, Raina and Singh are fringe players at best.

As pointed out, in the squad fielded by India, there was not a single member from the two domestic T20 champions – East Zone in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy and Mumbai Indians in the IPL. The players who made their mark in the latest edition of the IPL – Sanju Samson, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Krunal Pandya, Basil Thampi – were all missing. Forget this West Indies side for a moment, who are now established as the best assembled group of mercenaries in this format. It’s well known that they have the stars who would much rather play one format around the world than all formats for their country. It’s a unique case study.

But even the likes of England, Australia and South Africa have recognised the need for specialists in the shortest format. England’s core group is restricted to perhaps three or four star players, who are genuinely good in all formats, while the rest of the squad contains the likes of Chris Jordan, David Willey and Tymal Mills.

The fallacy of calling a one-off match as a series apart, it’s time India recognises the need for big-hitters at the top and the middle-order, the need for fast bowlers who have the variations and will not bowl the same ball twice in a row, and spinners who know how to take wickets in the shortest format. While the selectors’ decision to go with proven ODI players instead of IPL stars for the Champions Trophy squad was laudable, the reverse is not true for their approach to T20Is.

The result of this approach? Among full members of the ICC, only Bangladesh and Ireland have a worse record in T20Is in the last 12 months than India, who have won two of their last six matches.

For a country that boasts of creating the best T20 league in the world and producing some of the best talent, it seems like the national set-up is still unaware of how to tap the resources that they have in hand. And as long as they continue playing bilateral series with one T20I (yes, the upcoming Sri Lanka tour also has just one game) it’s unlikely that this issue will be looked at and resolved, until a few months ahead of the next World T20 when the captain will be left scrambling to search for the holy grail for India’s limited over squads – balance.