India were knocked out of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021 after New Zealand defeated Afghanistan by eight wickets in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. With the victory, New Zealand became the fourth team to qualify for the semi-finals after Pakistan, England and Australia.
India will now play their last game of the Super 12 stage against Namibia on Monday, and ahead of their final match in the multi-team tournament, bowling coach Bharat Arun listed two reasons behind the Virat Kohli-led team’s poor show at the ICC event.
Arun mentioned that toss and bio-bubble fatigue were the main causes that led to India’s defeats in the first two matches against Pakistan and New Zealand.
“I am not trying to give any excuses, but I think in this World Cup, the trend has been the team that wins the toss has a big advantage, especially when you are in playing in Dubai. The wicket kind of eases out when you come out to bowl the second time. These are no excuses. We should have done better, we should have batted better. In the first match, we had the chance to defend a good total, but we looked a little below par,” said Bharat in the pre-match presser of the India vs Namibia clash.
However, veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has rubbished Arun’s ‘toss excuse’ for India’s exit from T20 World Cup. Harbhajan said that the ‘Men in Blue’ failed to progress to the knockout stage due to their bad performances and nothing else.
Bhajji pointed out the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings‘ example, stating despite batting first, the team went on to beat Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the final not too long ago.
“I heard Bharat Arun saying that had India won the toss, they could have done this and done that. All that is up for a later discussion,” Harbhajan said on Sports Tak.
“If you had thought that you wanted to bowl first or bat first, well, didn’t Chennai Super Kings win the IPL after batting first? They did score 190, so you have to make runs. Let us accept the fact that we didn’t play well as we should have, and we did not live up to expectations,” he added.
