3 Reasons why India lost first T20I vs Australia

India lost the curtain raiser match of the T20I series against Australia on Tuesday in an embarrassing fashion. The Men in Blue failed to defend a mighty total of 208 runs in what has been a very humiliating defeat for India.

Let’s look at the three reasons for India’s loss against Australia:

Poor death bowling

Bhuvneshwar kumar (Image source: Twitter)

While India’s bowling, bar Axar Patel, was poor throughout the match, it was the death over bowling that cost India the match. The home team needed to defend 55 runs in the last four overs but they gave away all those runs in just 3.2 overs.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel were given the responsibility of defending 55 runs but the two bowlers were not up to the task as they came away with an economy of 13 and 12.2 respectively. The Indian bowling unit has individual economies of 13, 12.2, 13.5, 12.6 and 11 while Axar Patel's numbers read 4.2!

Dropped Catches

Axar Patel (Image source: Twitter)

Modern cricket is a game of fine margins. A couple of runs here and there could mean a win or loss for the team. Glenn Maxwell for example came up with a sensational effort to save five runs for the team in the dying embers of the game. The Australia fielder heroically jumped out of the boundary line to catch a certain six and throw it inside the boundary line while being in the air.

India however failed to mirror the heroics of Maxwell while fielding as they dropped some easy catches throughout the game. Axar Patel was the first to drop Cameron Green’s catch following which KL Rahul also dropped the batter in the very next over. Harshal Patel also dropped a caught-and-bowled chance to Mathew Wade in the 18^th over. All these dropped catches proved to be the last nail in the coffin for India.

Poor Captaincy

Rohit Sharma (Image source: Twitter)

Rohit Sharma has failed to ignite the same spark as he once did with Mumbai and the Indian team from the Indian T20 League this year. The Mumbai team came up with their worst-ever performance in this year’s tournament. It looks like Sharma hasn’t come out of the captaincy slump as of yet.

In the first game against Australia, the Indian skipper failed to use spinners properly and kept on bowling the ones who were going for more runs. Rohit Sharma also didn’t take two reviews which would have given Indian two wickets. The India skipper was angry after seeing the replay but the damage had been done. He was also poor when it came to fielding placement. When the ball wasn't doing much towards the end, he failed to put fielders on the leg side for Wade who kept putting the ball on that side for easy fours.