T20 world cup: For India, nothing clicks except Suryakumar Yadav

There will be days when good bowlers in the opposition camp will execute their plans and be taken to the cleaners. But, there will also be days in which there is a crash and burn, and you must accept this because when you live by the sword you will also die by it. The key is that the method should win you more than it costs and it should not be something that gets in the way of lifting the team in a big match or a knockout.

On a cold Sunday evening in Perth, even Suryakumar Yadav’s spark could not kindle a fire bright enough to get India to a big score. It was one of those days, on a pitch with a bit of juice against a fast bowling attack that knew just where to put the ball. As is now the norm, Surya played his brand of cricket, which is to use the pace, go after the bowling, attack mercilessly but with smart shots in odd parts of the ground, and got to 68 off only 40 balls. The rest of the team put together made 57 off 80 balls, with eight extras taking India to 133.

Every cricket coach tells young batsmen that the first thing they should learn is to value their wicket, and put a price on it. Now, in Twenty20 cricket, this is hardly feasible at the international level. The game has moved on at a rapid pace, but coaching methods at various levels have not necessarily kept up. While younger players are playing more freely and fearlessly, using shots that that one generation before them would have thought sacrilege, it has taken a lot of work for the likes of Virat Kohli to get into this mode.

Kohli being Kohli has found a way that works, in the most recent past. Having embraced the philosophy that the team management has laid out, Kohli is taking more risks, playing more shots than he might have earlier, even if he is doing so after setting up a base.

Rohit Sharma has come out swinging, and the results have not quite been there for him. In his last 10 matches, Rohit has endured scores of 11, 17, 0, 0, 4 and 15, but in that time, he has had four decent scores, including 72 from 41 balls, 46 not out in 20, 43 in 37 and 53 in 39. What Rohit has done is sacrifice the big scores to set the tone at the top of the innings. He’s setting the example of what he wants his batsmen to do.

But, it’s time to talk about KL Rahul. At one point India’s leading T20 batsman — and his overall numbers are still impressive: 68 matches, 2150 runs, strike rate 139.42, 2 hundreds and 20 halfcenturies — he now looks like someone caught between a rock and a hard place. On the day, Rahul, who was poking and blocking amidst launching one short ball over the on side, opened the face of the bat to Lungi Ngidi, steered the ball straight to the lone slip fielder, and then walked away shaking his head as though he had been undone by some spell cast by a sorcerer. Rahul, who has every shot in the game and then some, is the vicecaptain of the team, and it would be fair to say that he was involved in formulating the new expressive and risk-taking batting approach that the team has come up with. Yet, this is not quite reflected in how he has approached his batting. The flourish that you associate with Rahul at his best is missing, how he sets off for the first run is tentative and he is often watching the ball rather than pushing hard and his choice of shots has been poor.

Almost all of these point to a mind preoccupied with things other than just playing the ball at hand. Rohit has stressed the need to stay in the present. Rahul needs to do that at the crease, otherwise, it may soon become difficult even for his position as vice-captain from stopping him from being rested, benched, or worse.