'Rohit-Dravid' era reinventing India's T20 game

In recent times the Indian team has been one of the strongest competitors in all formats of the game. But they have failed to convert their bilateral success into ICC trophies.

One such debacle for the team was their performance in the T20I World Cup 2021. Not only did they get eliminated from the first round of the tournament, but they also lost their first World Cup match against arch-rivals Pakistan. 

After the unexpected failure of the team, a few changes came about in the leadership team. First, the BCCI brought in Rohit Sharma as the skipper of the team and Rahul Dravid as the Head Coach of the team.

Under new leadership, India have restyled how they play the shortest game format. However, before making any conclusions, let us look at what stats have to say. 

Batting Records

Powerplay Records

Middle Over Records

Death Over

So, what do the stats reveal?

Powerplay approach: India's scoring rate in the powerplays during and after the World Cup 2021 is quite close. The significant difference that appears is in the runs they have scored per wicket.

While India could score only 37.14 runs per wicket during the WC, they are scoring about 53 runs per wicket after the tournament. This shows that Rohit and Dravid have consciously injected the attitude in the team that they need to keep wickets in hand during the powerplays without letting the scoring rate drop. This might be why India is selecting naturally aggressive players like Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant as Rohit's opening partner.

Middle Over approach: While many believe that the Powerplays or the Death Overs are the most critical stages in a T20 match, I feel that a T20 game is won in the middle overs. The biggest change in India's approach has been in the middle overs. 

During the 2021 WC, India adopted a more conservative approach in the middle overs. As a result, they were pricing their wickets too much for the game's shortest format. 

The fact that India scored about 50 runs per wicket at a rate of 7.48 R.P.O during the T20 WC shows India's defensive mentality during the tournament. However, since the tournament, India has consciously tried to increase their scoring rate in the phase. 

In the last 19 matches, India have scored runs at the rate of 8.55 runs per over during the middle overs. While the scoring rate has increased significantly, the runs per wicket have gone down to 33 from 50. This aggressive approach from the team has reaped benefits as they have won 15 of these matches.

Death Over approach: Much like the middle overs, the price of wickets has gone down for India in the death overs post the 2021 World Cup. While the scoring rates are similar during both periods, the R.P.W has decreased from 23 to 11.38.

Conclusion: The way India have changed their batting approach in the shortest format of the game shouts out the fact that the team management had recognized certain facts and worked on them.

The biggest thing India has identified is that in a volatile format like the T20, there is no need to put an undue value on the wickets. As a result, the Men in Blue have been consciously more aggressive without thinking much about keeping wickets in hand.

It will be interesting to see, whether this new aggressive approach reaps benefit for the team in the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia.