Indian batting coach Sitanshu Kotak recently admitted that India played its worst game in the last two years against South Africa. However, he refused to be too worried about it and focused on the upcoming games.
India would never have imagined that this would happen to it in this ICC T20 World Cup. The defending champions entered their home World Cup as favorites and won it for the second consecutive time, thus rewriting T20 World Cup history.
After the crushing defeat against South Africa, now India will not only have to win against West Indies and Zimbabwe but will also have to take big steps so that it can secure its place in the semi-finals. His run rate has suffered a big blow due to the big defeat against South Africa.
“This is the worst game we have played in two years” – Sitanshu Kotak on Super-8 clash against South Africa
India were not as impressive in this World Cup as they have been in the last two years after becoming World T20 champions. In particular, India’s veteran batsmen have failed to make an impact, including opener Abhishek Sharma and number one batsman. 3 Tilak Verma.
Talking about the last game, Suryakumar’s captaincy looked a bit strange, like Gautam Gambhir’s shocking decision of keeping Axar Patel on the bench for such an important and high-risk game. India failed to take advantage of their good start with the ball in the middle overs and then the batting was also completely poor.
Sitanshu Kotak admitted, “During the bilateral matches, the batting was fantastic. The batting in the last game was worrying. I am not focusing on individual failures. We have to take the last game seriously; it was the worst game we have played in two years.”
He then mentioned some of the things that India did not do right in the game, which included their openers not being in form etc.
Kotak reveals India’s new mantra ahead of Zimbabwe clash, “Off spinners and bowlers bowl wide.”
Sitanshu Kotak made a long list of what went wrong for India in the last game, also, he did not put too much emphasis on it and instead focused on what they can do to improve their chances in the upcoming encounters.
“The opening batsmen have also not performed well. That’s fine, I won’t put too much emphasis on it. Not really that much of a worry. We are preparing for different challenges. Off-spinners and bowlers are bowling wide,” he said.
The Indian batting guru has revealed what will be India’s main strategy against Zimbabwe, and that is obviously to deal with the off-spinners better and secondly, to reach the pitch of balls that are placed away from the batsman’s hitting arc.
Sitanshu Kotak assures that India will adapt to the circumstances from now on
Sitanshu Kotak has assured everyone that one cannot play with a negative mindset from the first ball; So, it couldn’t be planned. What would be the change in strategy if wickets fell early? For now, it seems the Indian players would like to spend some time on the pitch and see it moving before launching their attack.
He concluded, “If you lose a few wickets, you have to wait and see how the ball is moving. It’s about when and how to adapt to the conditions rather than thinking negatively from the first ball.”
Also read: After India’s defeat to South Africa, ‘angry’ Gautam Gambhir scolded Suryakumar Yadav and company.
