Twenty20 is the shortest format of cricket, which started only in 2003. The format was introduced to the professional level by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2003 for inter-county contests. The purpose of bringing this format was to increase the pace of cricket, due to which the number of spectators on the ground and television could increase. This format is still successful in the world of cricket. Talk about T20 International, 18 years ago, on February 17, 2005, the first International T20 match was played. This match took place between Australia and New Zealand. Indian team played its first T20 International match on 1 December 2006 against South Africa in Johannesburg. This match was won by India by 6 wickets.
When the first T20 World Cup was played in 2007, it was won by Team India. After 2007, India has never won the 20-over World Cup again in these 16 years. However, India lost in the final in the 2014 World Cup and India in the semi-finals in the 2016 and 2022 T20 World Cups.
Since December 1, 2006, till now Indian team has played a total of 162 international matches of which 102 were won, 53 lost, 3 tied and 4 had no results. India’s performance is very special like this, but we will tell you about five such matches in which the Indian team has performed very poorly.
5. Vs Sri Lanka 101 all out 9 February 2016
The first match of the tri-series between Sri Lanka, India, and Bangladesh was played on 9 February 2016 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune. In this match, Sri Lanka won the toss and invited India to bat first. The batting of the Indian team was very poor in this match. The whole team could score only 101 runs in 18.5 overs. Barring Ashwin 31, Raina 20, and Yuvraj 10, none of the batsmen could touch double figures. Sri Lanka won this match by 5 wickets but it was not easy for Sri Lanka to score even more runs as it took them 18 overs to complete the target of 102 runs. Kasun Rajith, who dismissed the top 3 batsmen cheaply, got Man of the Match.
4. Vs South Africa 92 all out 5 October 2015
This match took place in Cuttack, Odisha when the South African team came to tour India. In the series of 3 T20 matches, India had already lost one match and this second match was also badly lost. After winning the toss, South Africa elected to bowl first. Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina scored 22-22 runs from the Indian team, and Shikhar Dhawan scored 11 runs, and apart from them, the whole team collapsed like cards. South Africa won the match by 6 wickets to take a 2-0 lead in the 3-match series. Albie Morkel gets the Man of the Match award for taking 3 wickets for 12 runs in 4 overs.
3. Vs Australia 140/7 28 September 2012
The 16th match of the ICC World Twenty20 League, Group 2 was played between Australia and India. We all know how important each and every match of the World Cup is. Batting first after winning the toss in front of a team like Australia, India scored only 140 runs losing 7 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Barring all-rounder Irfan Pathan 31(30) and Suresh Raina 26(19), no batsman could even reach 20 runs. In 2012, after scoring 140 runs against a dangerous team like Australia, the Indian team bowled so poorly that Australia won the match by losing only 1 wicket in 14.5 overs. In this way, India got a crushing defeat by 9 wickets. The hero of this match was Shane Watson, who took 3 wickets for 34 runs in 4 overs in the first bowling and then hit 72 runs in 42 balls while batting fast.
Read Also – ICC World Cup 2023: World Cup schedule announced, know when India and Pakistan will clash
2. Vs Pakistan 151/7 24 October 2021
India Pakistan match is a festival in itself. India had kept a record of winning against Pakistan in the World Cup for years, but it is said that records are made only to be broken. A similar record was broken due to India’s very poor performance in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021. In this match, batting first after losing the toss, India scored 151 runs losing 7 wickets in 20 overs. This score was very small for the Dubai ground. The Indian batsmen put up a very disappointing performance but the bowlers were not far behind. Despite having bowlers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy and Ravindra Jadeja, none of the Indian bowlers could take a single wicket against Pakistan. Mohammad Rizwan 79(55) and captain Babar Azam 68(52) gave Pakistan a historic victory and broke the losing streak going on for years. After this match, there was a lot of criticism of the Indian team and captain Virat Kohli.
1. Vs England 168/6 10 November 2022
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final match. Indian team gets the invitation to bat first. As usual, an opener got out early. However, there was no complaint with the bat in this match as India made 168 runs losing 6 wickets in 20 overs despite faltering. When it came to bowling, at first it seemed that it could be a head-to-head fight. But England openers Jos Buttler and Alex Hales batted in such a way that cricket cannot be forgotten for a long time. Jos Buttler and Alex Hales scored 80(49) and 86(47) respectively to give England a 10-wicket victory. Indian bowling was very ineffective in this match as well. Despite having bowlers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Akshar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin and Hardik Pandya, England scored 170 runs in just 16 overs.
Read Also – Ravichandran Ashwin told a major shortcoming in the schedule of World Cup 2023
