India is out of the ICC World T20 from the group stage of the tournament after New Zealand secured a comfortable win against Afghanistan on Sunday. After back to back defeats in the first two games against Pakistan and New Zealand, India’s semi-finals hope depended on the result in favour of Afghanistan on Sunday but the Kiwis were too hot to handle for Mohammed Nabi’s side.

The final win against Namibia did nothing for the Indian side, as they crashed out of the tournament. Once deemed the favourites, the Indian side was knocked out after they lost their first couple of games.

What did skipper Virat Kohli say recently in an interview?

Virat Kohli’s men did everything possible to win big against the Afghans and Scotland to boost their net run rate, but in the end, it will not matter anymore. India allowed them to get their semi-final hopes out of their hand after their comprehensive defeats against two big teams in the group. Virat Kohli also accepts that they were not brave enough with the bat in both of those games and did not play fearless cricket.

“I do not think we were brave enough with bat or ball. We were not brave enough with our body language. We did not have much to defend but we were not brave when we walked out to the field.”

Asked about the weight of expectations on the team, King Kohli said, “When you play for the Indian cricket team you have a lot of expectations — not just from fans, but players as well. So there is always going to be more pressure with our games and we have embraced it over the years. Everyone who plays for India has to embrace it. And when you cope together as a team you overcome it and we have not done it these two games.”

“Just because you are the Indian team and there are expectations does not mean you start playing differently. I think we are fine, there is a lot of cricket left to play.”

Let us look at some possible reasons behind India’s early exit from the T20 World Cup in the UAE-

Wrong team selection for the T20 World Cup

One of the big issues that came up in this T20 World Cup for India is their squad selection for the tournament. Two greats of India’s T20 cricket, Shikhar Dhawan and Yujvendra Chahal were not selected which was a very big call from BCCI and team management. Both of them performed so well in the IPL in UAE for two seasons in a row and fans were already disappointed not to see them in the World Cup. Dhawan is already a proven big-game player and India have definitely missed him in the top of the order.

No sixth bowling option for Team India

Any successful T20 side must have a good balance in the team including all rounder’s, who boosts the team strength in all departments of the game. Apart from Hardik Pandya, the Men in Blue did not have any sixth bowler in their ranks which cost them big. Pandya himself was not at his 100% to make a contribution with the bowl.

A busy schedule caused fatigue ahead of the T20 World Cup

The Indian team were away from home for nearly the last 6 months due to the World Test Championship finals followed by the test series in England. After that, it was the second phase of the IPL, where all the Indian cricketers were playing for their respective franchises. This has surely made an impact on all the player’s fatigue where some other teams started fresh in the World Cup.

Failed to perform under pressure against big guns

India lost heavily against Pakistan in the opening match. It was the very first time they lost to their arch-rivals in the ICC World Cups, before that it was 12-0 in favour of the Men in Blues. This defeat surely made an impact on the confidence of the Indian team who delivered a pathetic batting display against New Zealand in the second match, where they simply needed a win. The record against the Kiwis is not great for Virat Kohli’s men and they could not change in this attempt as well.