T20 World Cup 2021: It should have been India v New Zealand in a virtual knockout- Doull questions scheduling

Doull said that broadcasters schedule key matches to take advantage of festival season in India.

Former New Zealand Simon Doull has questioned the scheduling of India's matches in the T20 World Cup 2021 after the Men in Blue were eliminated from the race of the semi-finals after losing their first two matches of the tournament.

India, touted as one of the favorites to win the tournament, was knocked out of the competition as they lost their first two matches against Pakistan and New Zealand in Dubai. After that, despite winning big in their remaining three matches, Afghanistan’s loss to New Zealand on Sunday confirmed India’s exit from the tournament in the league stage.

Simon Doull, who is on commentary duty in the T20 World Cup 2021 said that the broadcasters wanted the top matches to be held during peak days. Through his assessment, Doull seems to have stressed that the order of matches proved to be detrimental to the Indian team.

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"I don't know how to put this kindly, but There was a real air of arrogance around the scheduling and that is what the broadcasters wanted with involvement from the ICC as they wanted India's fixtures around the holidays around Diwali and all that so they wanted those games at peak times," he said on Cricbuzz.

He further said that instead of playing Pakistan and New Zealand in back-to-back matches, the Kiwis should have been playing the Men in Blue in the last match of group 2 of the Super 12s stage. That way, it would've been a virtual knockout, with only one of these two teams going through to the next round.

“Pakistan should have been the first game, but the game against New Zealand should have been the final contest. It should have been India against New Zealand for a place in the semi-final at the end,” he added.

India keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik, on the other hand, felt that the Indian team would've preferred having their last three games scheduled before the first two.

"Everyone expected the contest against Pakistan a walk in the park considering the talent we have. It's a learning curve as well. Can give many reasons, but at the end of the day, India knows they did not play their best cricket.

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They would have hoped had the final three games been the ones they began with, they could have taken the confidence for the tough games. But, that is the beauty of a tournament like a World Cup, can't pick and choose here,” Karthik added.

From the Group-2 of T20 World Cup 2021, Pakistan qualified as the group-winners while New Zealand progressed as the runners-up.

(Cricbuzz inputs)