India lost its’ first super eight match in the ongoing t-20 world cup and the decision making ability of the current management is once again under the radar. Dropping Axar Patel, who is the vice-captain of the team is bizarre; but having said that, nobody was surprised, as this team management has been notoriously famous for adventurism of this kind.
We all understand the fact that nobody wants to lose and when people make decisions, they make them in hope that those decisions pay off. But there has been a pattern with this Indian team of making decisions, which seems to suggest that being the vice-captain of the team is rather a curse and not a responsibilty!
We all are familiar with the Shubman Gill saga and the kind of emotions it generated amongst the fans. For the uninitiated, Shubman Gill, out of nowhere was brought back into the t-20 fold and not only that, he was made the vice-captain of the team. That was a big step in Indian t-20 cricket, especially as Shubman was already leading the Indian team in the other two formats. It was very clear that the mantle was being passed to Shubman for being the leader in every format and having two different captains in limited overs cricket is a bit strange to be very honest.
However, the aforementioned was a bit difficult to digest as Sanju was already faring well as an opener(he had a string of low scores against ENG) and the fact that, Gill was straightaway made the vice-captain of team. If you are trying to bed somebody in the Indian team, especially the kind of t-20 cricket we were playing at that time(explosive), you know you have to give them time.
It was a time bomb waiting to be explode, as when the Indian t-20 team for the world cup was announced, the vice captain was nowhere to be seen. Not only he was not the vice-captain of the team anymore, he was dropped from the squad as well! His unceremonious exit raised many eyebrows(as it should) but more importantly, it raised the question of the importance of the position of a vice-captain. Just imagine bringing somebody back in t-20 fold, making him the vice-captain directly and then dropping him entirely from the scheme of things as soon as the world cup arrives. The team did not do any favors to the confidence of that man(Shubman Gill) and also the confidence of Sanju Samson(whose place Shubman took) took a heavy dent.
The story in itself is massive but it surprisingly doesn’t stop there! Guess, who is made the vice-captain for the t-20 world cup? Surprise, surprise, the same Axar patel, who has been warming the bench for the past two games, was named as the vice-captain of the squad! We were told that Axar has been the vice-captain in the past(implying when Shubman was busy with tests & t-20Is) and that he was back in his natural position.
Now when Axar started doing his things as VC, he was dropped from the Netherlands match first but it was seen more as a move to try out all the players in the squad. But when he was dropped from the South Africa game, I was astonished! A player of his repute, one who made you win the last edition’s finals along with Kohli, one who is a tremendous white ball player, one who is your Vice-Captain! I have nothing towards Sundar other than respect but this is not about him at all. You can’t drop Axar Patel for Sundar, just because the other team has three left handers in the first five, that’s straight-up eccentric!
If we end up winning the world cup, I along with millions of other ICT fans will rejoice but that doesn’t mean that I will stop asking questions. If Axar would have played and India would have still lost, I wouldn’t have said that they should have played Sundar instead. This means that I find the process to be faulty rather than the results. It can’t be that simple that I am the head coach and I am the captain, so we will do what we want to. We can’t have this approach of reckless abandon when selecting a team and then justify it by saying that it was a matchup or that it was tactical; always wanting a left-right combination on the pitch, always looking for matchups, induces instability in the team.
PS- I just hope in spite of this slight detour, we rectify things on the park and end up winning the coveted trophy.
