Wishlist for India in T20Is: Ultra-aggressive openers, batters who can bowl

A lot has been said and written since India’s ten-wicket hammering by England in the T20 World Cup semi-final. India’s timid approach in back-to-back T20I World Cups has made one thing clear – this team is far away from winning an ICC tournament.It has been nine years since MS Dhoni’s team lifted the 2013 Champions Trophy. Since then, India went through a very conservative ‘experimental’ phase which lacked real experiments.The English brand of cricket has taken over the world. With a bit of luck and Ben Stokes, they are currently holders of the ODI and T20I World Cups. The question is do India really need to mimic the English way or should they just take a cue from the team that won the inaugural World T20 in 2007?Robin

 

Uthappa’s walk-down-the-park shot against Brett Lee, Yusuf Pathan starting his international career with a second ball six off Mohammad Asif, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir’s fearless approach in the Powerplay, who can forget Yuvraj Singh, a six-hitting machine, and a finisher in MS Dhoni. The then India team had all the ingredients the current set-up is looking for. Do we really need to go to the English approach, or can we just take a look back at the ‘underdogs’ of 2007?

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