Mushfiqur Rahim was in a similar situation back in 2016 in the World T20 against India when he blinked and India stole the win away from Bangladesh. He was under the scanner. But this time, there were no premature celebrations, he kept his nerve and smacked four successive fours of Khaleel Ahmed to seal the match for his side.
Bangladesh finally won their first match against India in their 9th attempt and this has set up the rest of the series perfectly. There were lessons learnt for India and their largely inexperienced bowling attack. Here, we take a look at 3 talking points after India's loss.
Role of Shikhar Dhawan
It was a strange inning by Shikhar Dhawan. The Kotla pitch was sticky, but Rohit Sharma got off to a fast start, KL Rahul looked in good touch, Shreyas Iyer was all attack. But at the same time, Shikhar Dhawan scratched around and found no momentum at all.
His T20I numbers have been a problem for India and after this odd inning, the management needs to sit down with him and brief him about his role. There is Sanju Samson waiting in the wings and KL Rahul can be easily bumped up to open the inning.
Is Khaleel a death bowler?
Rohit Sharma is generally on point as far as his tactics on the field are concerned. He has won three IPL titles and has been largely successful when leading India. However, he kept Khaleel's last three overs for the death and in many ways, this backfired. The young man became too predictable and was taken to the cleaners by the experience of Mushfiqur Rahim.
The left-armer has progressed as a bowler but is certainly not a reliable bowler at the death and this is where the selectors need to take a call. There is enough arsenal in the pipeline and there are other bowlers better suited to this specific skill-sets.
What should be the balance of the side?
The depth in Indian cricket is immense and this is the biggest challenge for the selectors as well as the captain and coach need to decide what the perfect balance of the side should be. Hence, this should be tested out in this ongoing T20I series. In Delhi, they wanted to bat heavy, but this left the bowlers largely inexperienced and this proved to be the decisive factor in the end.
How will they respond?
