Just as all the glamor of metro cities like Mumbai-Gurugram gets drowned in smelly drains as soon as it rains, similarly a defeat in the T20 World Cup 2026 has also exposed Team India. Gautam Gambhir’s poor planning is equally at fault in the shameful 76-run defeat at the hands of South Africa. Head coach Gambhir is the biggest culprit of this defeat. Today, if India is on the verge of being out of the World Cup with this one defeat, then the entire blame should be placed on Gambhir’s strange strategy.
Cricket is played not only on the field but also in the mind.
Anyway, cricket is not played only on the field but more than that, it is played in the mind. This is the biggest mistake the team management has committed. The Indian batting unit was completely exposed last night at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Four wins in the group stage had covered up this weakness, but when the real test of the batsmen started on slow and black clay wickets, everyone surrendered. The world once again saw India’s weakness against finger spinners.
Poor planning, poor execution
There is neither clarity in the planning of the Indian team management nor in its implementation. Now what could be a bigger misfortune than that who would open for the previous champion team, it was not known till the tournament. Suddenly dropping Shubman Gill from the World Cup team. Gambhir and the selectors have already been under the scanner due to not including Shreyas Iyer in the squad.
The panic button was pressed at the wrong time!
Gautam Gambhir is continuously experimenting instead of fielding his best 11 players. India is experimenting at a time when it should not panic at all. The move of removing local boy Akshar Patel from the playing eleven against South Africa and replacing him with Washington Sundar was also incomprehensible. A person with poor vision can never become a successful strategist. If India won the 2011 World Cup, the experiments would have started in 2008. Experiments for the 2015 World Cup had to be done since 2012. Then the team gets ready before the tournament. If the players keep thinking till a few hours before the World Cup whether they will be selected in the team or not, then there will be a lack of confidence along with preparation and the same will happen as happened against South Africa last night.