New T20 mindset helps India take their game to new heights after embracing and accepting the nuances of the format.
New T20 mindset. A New India.
There was an odd curiosity when Marco Jansen ran in to bowl the final ball of the 16th over in the fourth Twenty20 International in Johannesburg. He had not given up a boundary in the first five deliveries. If this delivery continues, it will be the first over without a boundary since the innings’ first over. And the first without a six since the eighth.
It was not meant to be. Beyond deep midwicket, Tilak Varma sent the full-length ball into the stands after getting beneath it. It didn’t help that it was a free hit either. However, India made an incredible 283 for 1 after treating all 20 overs of their innings as slog overs.
With a strike rate of 196.64, Samson was the slowest of the three Indian batters in this game of exquisite oddities. Out of the seven bowlers South Africa used, Jansen was the most cost-effective, at 10.50 per over.
If India’s historic 36-all-out performance in Adelaide was a perfect storm, South Africa was struck by its batting counterpart on Friday.
In addition to dominating their beneficial matches, Samson and Tilak also dominated their ostensibly adverse ones. Tilak struck Aiden Markram for 4, 6, 6, 4 off consecutive balls, while Samson twice crunched Keshav Maharaj inside-out for four.
In just 14.1 overs, the pair helped India reach 200, their tenth 200-run or higher total of 2024. In a single year, no team has had more. India’s innings had 23 sixes, the most in a Twenty20 International with two Full Members. With a win percentage of 92.3, the highest ever for a Full Member having participated in at least ten Twenty20 Internationals in a single year, they concluded the year with 24 victories in 26 T20Is thanks to their 135-run triumph.
These figures are astounding. However, India was hardly the T20I trendsetters till a year ago. Even though they have the best T20 league in the world, their sole World Cup victory in the format predates the IPL. They then adopted T20 cricket at the beginning of 2024 in a desperate attempt to break their ICC trophy drought.
Now, the current group is continuing the shift that Rohit Sharma started. This generation is the first to not have been raised with the goal of preventing their shots.
The players have also received support from the team management, which is crucial considering how risky this type of cricket is. Samson was promised that he would play the following seven games despite his shortcomings in Sri Lanka. Suryakumar Yadav quickly gave up his position when Tilak requested a promotion to No. 3.
Additionally, this is the closest India has gone to acknowledging that T20 is a distinct sport rather than merely a different format. Their batting lineup in T20I is entirely different from that in Tests and ODIs, save for a few names.
And that shift in perspective is reshaping India’s T20 cricket and propelling it to previously unheard-of heights.