Indian cricket team's chances for the semi-final in T20 World Cup 2021 got a huge blow after New Zealand defeated them by 8 wickets on Sunday (October 31). The one-sided loss was mainly due to India's poor batting display, as they could only set a target of 111 runs in 20 overs.

Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar, speaking on Zee News, said that Team India didn't show much intent after losing the toss. Toss has been one of the decisive factors in the ongoing tournament and the team batting second has won most of the matches.

But India's performance was nothing to do with the toss and Akhtar called the bowling attack ‘mediocre’ and also took a jibe at changes made to the batting order.

ALSO READ: T20 World Cup 2021: Cricket fraternity reacts to India’s embarrassing 8-wicket loss to New Zealand

“They made a lot of mistakes. You can see it yourself, it’s very disappointing. My heart goes out to you. It’s not easy to swallow this kind of defeat.

“You ask your experts or anybody else, India never looked like taking the field today and that was so disappointing to see. And the second thing, India’s bowling looked very mediocre to me. Besides Bumrah, no other bowler seemed to be playing to his potential. Varun Chakravarthy managed the things a bit but the rest of the bowling was absolutely average,” Shoaib told Zee News.

“I couldn’t understand how would they play like this. And what happened if you lose the toss. Is it taking your life away? They just gave up after losing the toss,” he added.

After losing to Pakistan and New Zealand, India now depends on the outcomes of other teams, apart from winning all their remaining matches. They will next face Afghanistan. 

India opened with Ishan Kishan against New Zealand and played Rohit Sharma at number 3. Akhtar was not pleased with India's decision to change their batting order for the match.

“You just changed the batting order, played rash shots, Shami bowled too late, Shardul seemed average… it was disappointing to see all these. And now I worry about them facing Afghanistan in their next game. If they win the toss in Abu Dhabi, they will destroy India’s batting with spin.

“They have to go back to the drawing board and think if they want to play cricket on Instagram or on the field. Get your bowling unit in order, somehow,” Shoaib concluded.

(With Zee News Inputs)