India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun on Sunday (November 7) said that bubble fatigue and toss resulted in the team’s indifferent performance at the ongoing T20 World Cup.
“They have been in a bubble for six months and that takes a huge toll, so specific to your question, may be a short break between IPL and World Cup could have done a lot of good for these boys,” Arun said on the eve of India’s last Super 12 game against Namibia.
“Toss played a very, very vital role and I believe in these kind of matches, toss shouldn’t be of any consequence. Here toss gives unfair advantage and there is a huge change in batting in the first innings and batting in the second innings. That shouldn’t be the case in a short format like this,” he added.
Arun’s comments, however, led to an outrage on social media as fans and experts slam for him giving excuses after India’s underwhelming display.
Veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar have also criticized Bharat Arun’s statement, saying the Virat Kohli-led side failed to qualify for the semi-final due to a couple of bad performances.
“I heard Bharat Arun saying that had India won the toss, they could have done this and done that. All that is up for a later discussion. If you had thought that you wanted to bowl first or bat first, well didn’t Chennai Super Kings win the IPL after batting first? They did score 190, so you have to make runs. Let us accept the fact that we didn’t play well as we should have and we did not live up to expectations,” Harbhajan said on Sports Tak.
On the other hand, Gavaskar pointed out: “If our batting had flourished as it did against Afghanistan when they scored 200 then the dew factor wouldn’t have come into play at all because the bowlers have a cushion of 30-40 runs already. So even if they were taken for a few extra runs with the wet ball, those 40 extra runs would make the difference.”
Notably, the Men in Blue were outclassed by Pakistan and New Zealand in their first two games of the Super 12 stage. Kohli and company may have bounced back in the tournament by thrashing Afghanistan and Scotland, but their semi-final hopes weren’t in their own hands anymore.
With New Zealand defeating Afghanistan in their Super 12 clash on Sunday, India’s dream of qualifying to the semi-final from Group 2 came to an end.
The last Super 12 match between India and Namibia will now be a dead-rubber contest in Dubai on Monday (November 8).
