In the multi-team tournament, India have lost two games – against Pakistan and New Zealand. In both matches, the ‘Men in Blue’ never looked like they had any sort of control and faced comprehensive defeats.
Akram reckoned that the real reason behind India’s poor performance in the T20 World Cup is their negligence towards playing limited-overs fixtures. He mentioned that India give more preference to the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is not right at all.
“India last played a limited-overs series with all the senior players in March. Now we are in November. So that shows they are not taking those international series seriously. They think playing the IPL is enough,” Akram said on A Sports.
“You play as much league cricket in the world that you want. While playing league cricket, you will find one or two good bowlers in the opposition. In international cricket, you will face all five good bowlers,” he added.
Notably, India did play ODI and T20I series in Sri Lanka in July, but many senior players were absent due to their participation in the Test series in England.
Weighing in on India’s second match against New Zealand on Sunday, which they lost by eight wickets, Akram observed that losing the toss pushed India back a little. The cricketer-turned-commentator further asserted that changing Rohit Sharma’s batting order and allowing Ishan Kishan to open was the sign of Virat Kohli and Co. panicking after the 10-wicket defeat against Pakistan.
“It wasn’t a great game. It was a one-sided game. India committed a lot of mistakes. When they lost the toss, I feel they were pushed back a little psychologically. The biggest mess-up was downgraded Rohit Sharma to 3 in a crucial, do-or-die game. The guy has got four centuries in T20Is as an opener. They could have made Ishan Kishan bat at 3 too. This was the start when the panic button was pressed,” Akram explained.
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