Tired surfaces,spin bowling and dot ball percentage
No doubt Rohit and Rahul are prolific strikers of the ball. Most of the times Rohit has struggled against the spin to keep the tempo of the innings and holding out in the deep on these slow and sluggish surfaces.On the other hand KL Rahul has struggled to rotate the strike ended up playing more dot balls and failing to keep the momentum.
What made Virat to play against his nature
Dhawan's inability to score quickly and Rahul's inconsistency has made Virat to open the innings and deviate from his natural game.Virat's attempt to play unconventional strokes and trying to manufacture shots has brought his downfall in T20s.Virat is always been an accumulator of runs who plays proper cricketing shots, runs hard between the wickets and picks his spots and gaps in the end. While all other batters are playing around him. Thats how he has scored runs all his life, in IPL as well as in T20 internationals.
Strike rate most underrated
While bulk of the scoring in T20s done by top order batters, India seems to be struggling with the strike rates from their top 3.
Rohit Virat and KL expected to bat in top 3, all are having their career strike rate in late 130s.Here comes measure issue for team India, Next 4 batters Surya Kumar (IPL strike rate 135), Pant (career strike rate 129), hardik Pandya (career strike rate 141) and Jadeja ( career strike rate 112). None of the batters in top 7 has carreer strike rate more than 141.
Inability to look beyond pandya & out of form Surya
Indian team management have failed to look beyond all-rounder hardik Pandya who is now injured and not able to bowl for 2 yrs now. Could have groomed Deepak chahar, shardul Thakur or even new rising star promising Venkatesh Iyer ( left handed top order batter can bowl medium pace)
With Virat not in his sublime touch, out of form hardik Pandya (playing as specialist batter), an average IPL for Surya Kumar & with Pant you never know how he will perfom on a given day, it's going to be tough for india to score 170 -175.
All an all, again team India is in same situation what it was in 2019 world cup. One of the top 3 will have to play all the way through the innings to build competitive total for their bowlers to defend.
