Team India suffered a massive 10-wicket defeat against England in the second semi-final clash of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 at Adelaide Oval on Thursday.
Lots of fans and experts expected that the contest would be a cracker of a game, but the outcome was completely different as Indian bowlers failed to defend 169. The Indian bowling unit, which did pretty well throughout the tournament, couldn’t even take a single wicket as Jos Buttler and Alex Hales put up a dominant unbeaten 170-run opening stand to take England to the finals of the multi-team competition.
Notably, India last won an ICC title way back in 2013, when they triumphed against England in the Champions Trophy final under the leadership of MS Dhoni. Since then, the Men in Blue have lost in two ICC World Cup semi-finals (2015 and 2019), one Champions Trophy final (2017), a couple of T20 World Cup semi-finals (2016 and 2022) and one T20 World Cup final (2014).
After the defeat, several questions were being raised over the form of some senior players. However, Team India head coach Rahul Dravid came out in support of the experienced campaigners, stating that it was not the right time to talk about their future.
“Too early to talk about. These guys (Rohit, Kohli & Bhuvneshwar) have done well. Not the right time to talk about this,” said Dravid in the post-match press conference.
Dravid admitted that the English team got off to a tremendous start which helped them to control the game from the beginning.
“Once they got off to that kind of start, I think they could really sit back and control the run rate. We had 168. They brought that run rate down to six and a half, I think, by the time the sixth over was finished, or seven runs an over, and then on a small ground like that, they were always in control, so they were going to control that game. They didn’t really need to take too many risks. They could sit back and — not that they didn’t take them; they played some really good shots right through. But yeah, these things happen. Yeah, it’s disappointing. Debacle, I’m not sure, is the right word, but disappointing certainly,” added Dravid.