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Changing the top order batting suddenly cost India the match – Jayawardene

Time icon November 2, 2021 | Last Updated: May 17, 2024 at 5:38 AM

India have fallen behind in the quest of a semi-final spot of the T20 World Cup, and according to Mumbai Indians’ head coach and former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene, they may have contributed to their own downfall by experimenting with the batting order too much in too little time.

Rohit Sharma was pulled out of his usual position at the top of the order in the game against New Zealand and made to bat at No. 3. While that was in response to an injury – Suryakumar Yadav – and the replacement’s – Ishan Kishan – best chance of success being at the top, it left too many players dealing with unfamiliar batting positions. In the end the newly formed batting line-up could only post 110 for 7 and was convincingly beaten.

You can’t be flexible with the top three batters – Jayawardene

Former International Batsman and Mumbai Indians coach talked about India’s downfall, saying, “You can be flexible. But not with your top-three batters,” Jayawardene said on a news channel. “I think most teams if you take, you don’t have too much flexibility in that top three. They are settled.

They are the ones who are going to give you that initial tempo, who are going to go about things. And then you have that guy at No. 3 who is going to glue things together and bat in both halves of the innings and the rest of the guys are the ones who will probably get floated in and around.”

India should have made just one batting change – Jayawardene

Firmly stating that Rohit should had opened the innings, Jayawardene elaborated, “That’s his role he plays in T20 cricket and Virat Kohli is either an opener or No. 3. I think KL Rahul would have been able to play that No. 4 role because he has that ability to change and adapt.

“In an ideal scenario, if India had a good start and had a settled thing, even Rishabh Pant could have batted No. 4 – given they [New Zealand] had a left-arm spinner [Mitchell Santner] and a legspinner [Ish Sodhi], he would have got more licence to then play knowing that he had two-three batters behind him.

“So rather than making all those changes they should have done just that subtle change – one in, one out – and then maybe one batter changing positions, rather than three batters changing their slots, would have made a bit more sense. Especially going against a very good New Zealand new-ball attack because it was always going to do a little bit in those three-four overs.”

Indian players were visibly in pressure – Jayawardene’s final words

“If you batted them in those correct positions, they are familiar with those roles and they would have executed,” he said. “If they had failed in those roles, then that’s a question you can always ask. But if you are pulling guys away from those particular roles where they are quite familiar with, then it’s always going to be a tough one.

“Especially when you are going into a World Cup, you should have a steady, stable, settled set-up where everyone understands where if someone fails, that’s my role, to go in, consolidate and then kick on, get the tempo going again.

I think that’s where India struggled. Especially having lost to Pakistan and then going into another big match, once you unsettle that, the fear of failure and all those thought processes creep into your game.”