Asia Cup 2022: Defeat to SL has exposed Team India's issues

To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling victory and defeat both of which make good copy are but imposters which must be treated the same Or at least thatrsquos what Rohit Sharmarsquos philosophy isThe sixwicket loss to Sri Lanka in their second Super 4 encounter of the Asia Cup on Tuesday is either a minor setback in the larger scheme of things a major disaster in the immediate term or a bit of bothDefeat to Pakistan on Sunday could have been attributed to lsquoone of those thingsrsquo which doesnrsquot really mean anything but a second consecutive loss which followed a similar pattern has exposed some chinks in what appeared to be a welloiled machine even a week backUnaccustomed rolesOf the many talking points is the inability of the middleorder to build on platforms and of a certain brittleness to the deathovers bowling that could still be rectified when Jasprit Bumrah returns from injury There certainly is a plan behind the constant rejigging of playing XIs and the assignation of different unaccustomed roles to players even this close to the T20 World Cup but what those plans are is a little difficult to fathom especially in light of the wrong resultsNot for the first time in recent years India havenrsquot been able to replicate stirring form in bilateral contests to a more expansive stage Coming off excellent wins in England and against West Indies Indiarsquos reputation in multiteam events has taken another beating building on their inability to qualify for the semifinals of the last T20 World Cup in these same parts 10 months backRohit acknowledged that there was lsquomore pressurersquo and lsquogreater challengesrsquo in such tournaments because the opposition keeps changing adding ldquoOur job is when wersquore under pressure how the boys should take decisions the shots you play under pressure the balls you bowlrdquoIndia havenrsquot taken the best decisions on the fieldmdashoff it too some might say pointing to Deepak Hoodarsquos presence at No7 instead of the more acclaimed and specifically requisitioned Dinesh Karthikmdashor played the most intelligent shots under pressureAlso Read England recall Alex Hales for T20 World CupNot just oneoff performancesTheir bowling at the death in two games on the bounce has been less than spot on and while it might be tempting to write them off as part and parcel of the game an emerging pattern makes it hard to reconcile to such performances as strict oneoffsThat being said itrsquos hardly time to sound the alarm bells There is too much class quality pedigree commitment and ambition within the group not to be stung by these reverses not to be affected by the absence of global silverware since 2013Onus of coach DravidIndiarsquos revamped blueprint for the T20 game has been obvious to even the casual onlooker and their methods have been vindicated by the string of good results since the last World CupItrsquos a question of the pieces of the jigsaw coming together at the right timemdashin Australia from next monthmdashand there is no reason why that canrsquot happen what with the core management group manned by wise heads with coach Rahul Dravid in the forefront