TOI highlights the areas which are letting the Men In Blue down in the Asia Cup...
Lack of big game temperament
As in the past, India excelled in the build-up to the Asia Cup, winning bilateral games against Ireland and England. But the performance dipped dramatically again in a major tournament, especially in the crunch games. Some sub-par performances in crunch games are responsible for this. Suryakumar Yadav has a strike rate of 160 in this Asia Cup, mainly due to his 26-ball 68 (strike rate 243) against minnows Hong Kong. Against Pakistan, he scored 18 off 18 balls and 13 off 10. Against Sri Lanka he made 34 off 29 balls. Which means in these key games, he had a modest strike rate of 118. KL Rahul has a strike rate of 104, Hooda 106 and Pant 124 in this edition.
Absence of consistency
Yuzvendra Chahal, India's premier leg-spinner, had one good match. Rahul has an average of 17 in four games. Against both Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Super 4 stage, senior paceman Bhuvi bowled a disastrous 19th over, giving away 19 runs and 14 runs respectively, including two wides each. Among the batters, the middle order of Yadav, Pant and Hooda were major let-downs.
Too many one-trick ponies
Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal were subpar in the field. Left-armer Arshdeep, shaping up as a neat death-overs bowler, dropped a dolly against Pakistan. Chahal spilled one off his own bowling against Pakistan in the opener. Against Sri Lanka, he didn't even go for an early catch that a more athletic fielder could have tried. Both are rabbits with the bat as well. Bhuvi is a decent Test and ODI bat. But his T20 strike rate as a batter is 71. How many batting No. 11s can one team have?
Can't hit the stumps
In the last over of India's vital game against Sri Lanka, both 'keeper Pant and bowler Arshdeep missed the stumps with their throws. During the tournament, the entire Indian team consistently failed to hit the target, even from close range. Only Jadeja managed to hit the stumps once against Hong Kong.
Sub-par running between wickets
Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka were superior to India in this department. Barring exceptions like Virat Kohli, few showed any interest in running hard and converting ones into twos. On the contrary, twos were downsized into ones. Yadav, Pant, Hooda seldom showed running urgency. During the Dhoni and Kohli era, India's running between the wickets was at par with the Australians. Now there's a distinct slide in that area.
