Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former Pakistan captain, expressed his surprise over India’s lacklustre performance against New Zealand yesterday (October 31). The Men In Blue’s misery against the Blackcaps in ICC events prolonged last night. Their chances of making it into the semifinals of the ongoing T20I World Cup took a serious hit with a heavy 8-wicket loss in Dubai.
Inzamam-ul-Haq claimed that the contest between India and New Zealand was one of the biggest ones in the tournament. However, he failed to understand how India stitched together such a poor performance right from the word go.
Inzamam-ul-Haq Shocked By The Demoralized Manner In Which India Played
The much-valued Indian batting lineup failed to accelerate the run rate and kept on losing regular wickets, managing only 110 in the stipulated 20 overs. India was never in the contest, with the new-look top-order in the absence of Suryakumar Yadav struggling in the powerplay and subsequent wickets falling at regular intervals.
New Zealand made easy work of the paltry 111 run target with more than 5 overs to spare as Daryl Mitchell’s 49 and Kane Williamson’s unbeaten 33 steered the Kiwis home.
While speaking on his YouTube channel, Inzamam said: “This match was the biggest one after India and Pakistan. Even bigger than Australia vs England. I’m shocked by the manner in which India played. They were absolutely demoralized. I could not understand how such a big team took so much pressure.”
While he played his first 2021 T20I World Cup match, Ishan Kishan opened the batting along with KL Rahul while Rohit Sharma dropped to No. 3, but that move didn’t work. Ishan Kishan scored just 4 runs from 8 balls, while Rohit Sharma made 14 from as many balls in India’s below-par total of 110 for 7 in 20 overs.
Ravindra Jadeja top-scored with 26 not out off 19 balls, while Hardik Pandya made 23 off 24 balls while the rest batsmen all failed to fire. The Indian top-order and experienced batsmen KL Rahul (18 off 16), Virat Kohli (9 off 17), Rishabh Pant (12 off 19) failed when it mattered most.
Inzamam-ul-Haq : NZ Spinners Are Not World Class
Inzamam-ul-Haq failed to understand how the Indians were not able to score more runs off the two Kiwi spinners. Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi ran a tight ship and claimed combined figures of 8-0-32-2. The leg-spinner was awarded man of the match for his display that included the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The latter scored only 9 off 17 balls before losing his wicket to Ish Sodhi. Trent Boult also returned with figures of 3/20.
Inzamam-ul-Haq added: “These NZ spinners are good, but not world-class. The Indian batsmen were not even able to score singles off them. Kohli’s strength is playing spin and even he was not able to get a single.”
India managed 110 for 7 in 20 overs, in which they didn’t effectively score runs in nine of those overs (54 dot balls). Worse, they were just able to hit a single boundary between overs 8 and 15 when two spinners, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner, were in operation.
The Indian batsmen never got the scoreboard ticking. Boundaries and strike rotations were hard to come by in the middle overs, leaving India in a tough spot. India needs to win all of their remaining fixtures and hopes for a few other fixtures to go their way to secure a spot in the semifinals of the T20 World Cup 2021.