India's T20 approach needs a reboot, not a refresh

But few had accounted for conditions in the early part of the tournament. Along with the bounce came swing and seam, and add to this the fact that the organisers chose to keep the boundary ropes at the edge of the grounds. That made par scores drop by at least 20 runs, and powerplays became as much about preservation of wickets as about run-scoring. It meant the Indian top order could slip back into familiar territory, and it allowed Kohli, who ended as the top scorer in the tournament, to go back to his organic template: build, rotate strike, and end with a turbo finish.Still, it was evident that India were routinely falling behind in the powerplays, and often it was Suryakumar Yadav’s genius strokeplay that made up for it. India would end the tournament at No. 10 in the powerplay scoring rates (95.85), above only Netherlands and Zimbabwe. And when it mattered, against England in Adelaide, India were doomed by their powerplay performance. England’s 170 for no loss looked damning against the Indian bowlers, but the match was lost in the first ten overs, during which India limped to 62.Because the problem was so apparent, India went about addressing it aggressively in the months leading up to the World Cup. But the question is if that sort of approach can be consistently executed with a set of batters for whom the style goes against their natural impulses. In those 12 months Rohit led the charge with personal example, often sacrificing his wicket with ungainly strokes; that it has been against his grain has been obvious. KL Rahul has remained an enigma, his potential shining through in flashes, but consistency and big-match performances have remained elusive. Back at his best, Kohli demonstrated what he is still capable of, but are India best served by sticking with him at No. 3 irrespective of match situations?Boundaries first: Suryakumar Yadav’s approach needs to be the template on which India’s T20 game is built•Getty ImagesThere are other questions that should haunt Indian cricket. Despite 15 years of the IPL, why has India not produced enough specialist T20 cricketers? This is no slight to Dinesh Karthik, but why did a country with so large a player base need to go back to him despite him having a stop-start international career that has spanned 18 years? How is it that there is hardly a top-order batter who can bowl? Or so few fast bowlers who can swing a bat? And why does the bowling attack feel so bereft in the absence of one gun bowler?That India have been a flawed T20 team is mainly down to what’s available. Is it because the leading players in the country have found more comfortable roles with their franchises? There is a surfeit of top-order batters and plenty of spinners who are comfortable in the middle overs. And till recently, locating a death-overs specialist beyond Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar was a struggle.Suryakumar hasn’t become a devastating batter in all positions and against all bowlers only because of his rubbery wrists and quick hands. He has single-mindedly fashioned himself to be so. He hits so many fours and sixes because he has trained his impulses that way. Watch him set up a ball and you will see that a boundary is his first option, and he settles for less only when the boundary option is not executable. He is India’s first international-class T20 specialist. And he is the model.Few sports have developed as rapidly as T20 has done. It might be the youngest form of cricket but it has matured beyond recognition. That it rules the popular imagination and at the cash counters is no longer in question, and the IPL has been instrumental in making it so. It is ironic and galling that India have lagged behind in both the physical and mental aspects of playing T20 cricket. It’s not a coincidence that their only win in a T20 World Cup came before the IPL.No other cricket nation is better equipped to build a specialist T20 pool. But a start can only be made by recognising that India’s T20 approach needs not a refresh but a reboot. And it’s worth remembering that India’s first T20 revolution began with a step that felt radical then: Rahul Dravid persuading his contemporaries that T20 was not for them.