Team India is very much behind in T20 cricket, they must set their own template: Saba Karim

Team India’s horrendous campaign in the T20 World Cup 2021 has raised a lot of eyebrows. With several match-winners in the ranks, the Men in Blue stepped into the competition as one of the favourites. However, they couldn’t live up to the expectations and suffered humiliating defeats against Pakistan and New Zealand respectively. The same ended their chances of qualifying for the semi-finals.

Many reckoned that Team India’s lack of intent was the biggest reason behind their ouster. Former Indian cricketer Saba Karim is also of the same opinion. He feels the Men in Blue are lagging behind other teams as far as T20 cricket is concerned. Karim also reckons the Indian team must evolve and make the necessary adjustments to thrive in modern-day cricket.

We need to prepare ourselves as soon as possible: Saba Karim

“Team India is very much behind if we look at how T20 cricket is evolving and changing these days. We need to prepare ourselves as soon as possible and set our own template of playing the shortest format. Like what should be our template while setting targets and while chasing,” Karim said in a discussion on the Khelneeti podcast.

“We need to choose players for different roles accordingly. The 2021 World Cup was huge learning for the Indian team think-tank to start preparing with this thought process for upcoming World Cup tournaments,” he added.

With the next T20 World Cup, which is slated to take place in Australia, being less than a year away, Team India would like to form a formidable team for the gala tournament. Notably, Rohit Sharma will lead India in the shortest format now onwards and it would be interesting to see how the side performs under his leadership.

Meanwhile, India’s upcoming assignment is a three-match T20I series against New Zealand at home which gets underway on November 17. Karim has also warned India to not put a foot wrong against the Kiwis.

“New Zealand is that team that everyone ignores, underestimates, and takes for granted. Whichever team plays against NZ doesn’t do that much homework of their players. They think they are not playing the global T20 league, no big names are there, so we can easily beat them,” he asserted.