Former India wicketkeeper-batsman Deep Dasgupta stated that Team India can take a few positives from the 2021 T20 World Cup despite not qualifying for the semi-finals. India started their campaign with two consecutive losses against Pakistan and New Zealand in the Super 12s stage. Although they bounced back and won the last three games, it didn’t help them to qualify for the knockout stage as well.
And, according to Dasgupta, it is the attitude of the Indian players which helped them to fight back despite losing their first two matches of the tournament. He opened up on the positive approach of the opening pair of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma and also the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja as well.
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Deep Dasgupta said: “The attitude of the Indian players has got to be the silver lining for India. Like the intent by opening batsmen and Jadeja’s bowling. Jadeja was looking to pick wickets and not only just contain runs by bowling defensively. Important to keep this mindset going. Hopefully they continue this brand of cricket even though the opponents were not the strongest teams.”
Meanwhile, the series was the end of Ravi Shastri and Co.’s era as Team India head coach. Along with him, it was Virat Kohli’s final T20I series as captain as he has quit the captaincy as well. However, Dasgupta praised Ravi Shastri’s contributions as the head coach and said that he is leaving the Indian team in a better state than it was when he started. Notably, Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma have taken over the reins from Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli as Team India head coach and T20 captain respectively as well.
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“The win percentage under Ravi Shastri has been around 60%, there are hardly any teams that can say they have such a win percentage over the last 4-5 yyears One of the talking points from this tenure is how he took this Indian team and how he has left it in a better state now. The quality of cricket has improved massively,” Deep Dasgupta concluded.
