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India vs South Africa 2015, T20I series: 5 reasons India lost

The hosts started as favourites, but ended up on the losing side, leaving a lot to ponder.

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Indian team will have a lot to ponder when the ODI series begins on October 11 © AFP
The Indian team needs to quickly regroup before the ODI series begins on October 11 © AFP

The Twenty20 international (T20I) series between India and South Africa came to an end on a rather pallid note. The rain gods spoiled the third T20I at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, depriving India of a chance to redeem themselves and restore some pride. The fans too were robbed of some exciting cricket. The Kolkata game was an inconsequential one though, with India surrendering the series in the first two games. One cannot fathom how a team that scores nearly 200 in the first game gets bundled out for a sub-100 score in the second match. With the T20Is done and dusted, the focus now shifts to the One-Day International (ODI) series that begins October 11. It is important that India analyse the reasons for their loss and fix them before the ODIs commence. Chinmay Jawalekar states five reasons for their series loss.

1. Selection errors: The selectors and skipper MS Dhoni probably set up India’s loss at the drawing board itself, when they got it all wrong with the selection.  Instead of adopting the horses for courses policy and opting for T20 specialists for the series, India went in with the same set of players that play the other two formats. Considering T20 cricket is a completely different ball game, the team could have included the likes of Gurkeerat Singh, Hardik Pandya, and Deepak Hooda, who are reputed T20 players. Investing in youngsters would have been a good decision as the ICC World T20 is just a year away. READ: India vs South Africa 2015: India marks out of 10

Dhoni compounded the problems further by choosing to keep Ajinkya Rahane out, a decision that has attracted huge criticism. If only Rahane played from the beginning, the results could’ve been different.

2. Opening woes: Shikhar Dhawan’s dry run of 3 and 11 at Dharamsala and Cuttack respectively was another reason for India’s failure. A massive hundred against the Bangladesh ‘A’ side meant he was in a red-hot form, which augured well for India. But the Delhi southpaw failed to carry the same form into this series. If we look at Dhawan’s T20I career, he averages 14.37 from 8 games. His strike rate of 103.60 does not inspire much confidence either.

3. Bowling blunders: If India’s batting was bad in the second game, their bowling was pathetic in the first. Barring Ravichandran Ashwin, no bowler looked threatening against the mighty South Africans. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sreenath Aravind, and Mohit Sharma looked ordinary and struggled to bowl in the death overs in the first game. The team badly missed the services of Mohammed Shami, who is still nursing an injury. Could the team have gone back to Ashish Nehra? READ: Has overconfident India taken South Africa lightly?

4. Umpiring blues: India continues with its stand on the Decision Review System (DRS). No wonder they always end up being at the receiving end of a few howlers. In the first T20I at Dharamsala, JP Duminy’s magical unbeaten 34-ball 68, which had seven smashing sixes, won it for his team. His knock was not flawless though, as he twice got reprieves from the on-field umpire Vineet Kulkarni. Duminy survived two close LBW calls, once early in his innings while he was on 5 and later on 33. It appeared that he was out on both the occasions. In the 13th over, he survived off left-arm spinner Akshar Patel, who he later smashed for 3 successive sixes. In the 17th over, with the match in the balance, Kulkarni ruled Duminy not out to a strong Bhuvneshwar LBW appeal. The incident has once again opened the debate on DRS, which the board and the team continue to oppose. Is it time to take a review on the DRS?

5. Dhoni’s leadership: India came into this series fresh from a Test series win in Sri Lanka under new skipper Virat Kohli. Dhoni was coming back from a break. His last assignment saw a drubbing at the hands of former minnows Bangladesh. So it was important for him to win this series and keep his reputation intact; but it did not happen. He kept making bizarre choices with the team selection and saw the team lose haplessly. It is safe to say the captain is running out of steam, ideas and luck. With his ability to finish off the games fading rapidly, perhaps for the first time Dhoni finds his place in the side under serious trouble. Where has the Midas touch that used to win matches for India gone? Perhaps the time has come for a change of guard.

(A self-confessed cricket freak, Chinmay Jawalekar is a senior writer with CricketCountry and Criclife. When not writing or following cricket, he loves to read, eat and sleep. He can be followed here @CricfreakTweets)

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