The Indian team could not win the match against the Afghans. However, there are 5 positives for India to take home from this India vs Afghanistan tie match.
Fans of cricket all over the world witnessed yet another thriller cricket match which ended in a tie. Afghanistan is super happy about the result. For them, a tie against the two times World ODI champions and one-time World T20 champions is like a win to celebrate.
However, Indian fans gave mixed reactions. Some are happy to see Afghanistan play and challenge like true champions. Also, some are happy for the value offered to world cricket. Particularly, to see the strong and rapid growth of Afghanistan Cricket.
On the other hand, some of the Indian fans are still in shock. They are not able to digest the fact that their Champion team struggled against an inexperienced team of Afghanistan.
To allay the hurt and pain of such fans, here are 5 positives for India from this India vs Afghanistan tie match:
1. India on its toes in the final:
India has its share of dark history when it came to big finals. Many times they went into the final of big tournaments with ease. But crumbled down in the important final match quite badly. For instance, the World cup 2003 final against Australia and the Champions Trophy 2017 final against Pakistan. They are still fresh wounds in the minds of die-hard Indian cricket fans.
Indian team must be really thankful to the Afghanistan team for the tie. As a result of this, Rohit Sharma and his army will be fully attentive and on their toes in the final. This tie will make sure that Indian players will take up practice for those extra few hours. This tie, in a psychological context, has assured that India will not be lethargic in the finals.
2. Never to underestimate any opponent
With this tie, India learned its very important lesson of treating every opponent equally. This lesson is going to serve very well in the upcoming World Cup 2019 in England. As most of you must be knowing, World cup 2019 is a round-robin tournament, just like IPL.
Here every team will play with every other team once. And finally, top 4 will play the semifinals. So India will face all kinds of opponents. For example, from the tournament favorites England to the relatively new team Afghanistan. From strong New Zealand to less strong West Indies.
Memories of this tie match against the Afghans will help India immensely. They will now look to put their best foot forward in every match, irrespective of the opponent.
3. Importance of going the extra mile.
What if Chahar had been more careful with his line and length? What if Khaleel had bowled as if he was bowling to strong openers? And just imagine if Dhoni had played as if India needed 300+ runs to win?
And finally what if Ravindra Jadeja had put a little extra energy while hitting that leg-side shot to Rashid Khan? He could have converted it into a convincing big six.
These little extra efforts can help seal matches. Why give half-hearted efforts? Why not can put your heart, soul, and energy in every ball you bowl and every shot you play?
4. New players in the team got a taste of real pressure
It’s very easy to win matches and do well when the pressure is almost nil. What tests your real character are these high-pressure conditions. These are the matches where you can take your reliability score up.
Players like Chahar, Khaleel, Jadhav, Karthik, Kuldeep, Pandey, and Jadeja will spend hours and weeks thinking about this match. Hope all of them use this experience and learn from it.
I know it is a very cliché thing to say, but what would have happened if India had won this match? These players would not have given serious thought to these important lessons.
5. Never to gamble with DRS reviews
ICC has introduced the DRS review system to overturn a bad umpiring decision. But players these days use it to gamble. They think they might get the decision in their favor. When you are not sure about a decision, it is better to respect the skills of the umpire.
Otherwise, you may take away the right of your fellow teammates for a sensible review option later in the match. This is exactly what KL Rahul did when he was given LBW out. He casually gambled the DRS review. This resulted in Dhoni and Karthik suffering later in the match. They badly needed the review and deserved it.
Fortunately, KL Rahul mentioned after the match that he agrees that he did a mistake. As a team, they need to be more careful about this gambling addiction. India team has carried this gambling addiction since the 2018 series against England.
Hopefully, the Indian team will apply these on-paper lessons in the real match scenarios. And will not repeat the blunders in the future matches.
The best place to see if India has taken any of these positives seriously is the Asia cup final on coming Friday.
If you liked the article please share it. Also, follow us on Twitter.
- Vitality T20 Blast 2020 Points Table and Match Results
- Vitality T20 Blast 2020 All Teams & Full Squads
- 2019 Vitality T20 Blast Knock-Out Results, Points Table, Top Players, Finals Summary
- IPL 2020 All Teams, Players, Full Squads, Complete Schedule, Past Winners
- Vitality T20 Blast 2020 Full Match Schedule & Past Winners
- 2019 Vitality T20 Blast Teams, Players, Squads, Schedule, Past Winners
Leave a Reply