india: Since their debacle at last year’s T20 World Cup, India have worked on playing fearless and attacking cricket

It was on October 24 that Shaheen Shah Afridi produced four balls of mayhem, blasting out Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in his first over. India never recovered from being 6 for 2, and limped to 151 for 7.

A week later it was Trent Boult who did the damage, picking up 3 for 20 as India slumped to 120 for 7 in 20 overs.

The common thread in those two losses, which ensured a first-round exit for India, was that early wickets were followed by diffident batting. There is little room for consolidation in T20 cricket, even when you lose early wickets, and India paid the price for playing an outdated style of cricket.

In the aftermath of the World Cup, Virat Kohli gave up the T20 captaincy and a new team of coaches took over, with Rahul Dravid at the helm.

With Rohit as captain in the shortest format, it was back to the drawing board for India. The first thing the new skipper did was to insist that his team play fearless and consistently attacking cricket, through the 20 overs of each innings. This would inevitably mean that there would be days when they imploded. To address this, India worked on creating depth in the batting line-up.

What was also done was identifying key personnel for certain roles. Dinesh Karthik as an enforcer is one such example. Hardik Pandya’s return to full fitness ensured that another piece of the puzzle fell in place.

“We wanted to change a lot of things, and we addressed what went wrong for us in the last World Cup,” Rohit said on the eve of India’s match against Pakistan. “Now it’s time to execute those ideas, those plans. See, no team will be 100 per cent right, but as a team, we want to do as many things as possible right.”

Late injuries in the lead-up to the World Cup did not help, with Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah being ruled out. While Axar Patel has ensured that India has not missed Jadeja the bowler, it is now upto Mohammad Shami to step up.

Shami has not played a T20I since November last year, and just when he was about to get a go in the home series against Australia, Covid-19 laid him low. His return is perhaps the one thing India did not meticulously plan for in their preparations.

“When Bumrah got injured, we always wanted to have someone experienced in the lineup, and Shami was the right choice for us,” explained Rohit. “With the kind of experience that he has, we know that he will not be short of match practice. I think he’s very well prepared. He came to Brisbane quite early and had a few sessions with the entire team.”

The logic of playing this new brand of cricket is sound and it’s clear that the batting line-up had bought in wholeheartedly. In bilateral series, they have been able to roll out this style of play, and now it is time to walk the talk in a high-pressure event where you face a new team every match.

To do so, the players have been given the security needed to play with freedom. Each player is not judged by his results in one game or two, but rather on whether the team is playing the right type of cricket. Once players have that security, it becomes easier to push the envelope and take a few more risks — which this format needs.

“I think the more you keep things simple, the easier it is for you to go and get the job done. That is what our focus has been,” said Rohit. “We have and constantly talked about how we can just relax ourselves a little bit and not worry about the fact that we have not won an ICC trophy in nine years. It’s my personal belief that if you think too much of the past, you won’t be able to focus on the present.”

For Indian T20 cricket, the future is now. All that’s left is for this group to leave pressures and expectations behind and look forward to the opportunity they have to end their dry spell at global events.