With dew respect!

Before the Pakistan match Indian captain Virat Kohli had asserted that the Men in Blue had ticked all boxes and covered all bases Itrsquos quite apparent after the 10wicket defeat that they had not prepared for the dew factorPeople may consider a critic wiser after the event but the fact is India faltered by going in with just five bowlers especially knowing that dew could be an issue and also playing a halffit Hardik Pandya when the need was for a bowling allrounderIndia also missed an experienced bowler like Ravichandran Ashwin though Kohli asserted that any other bowling option would also have been futile in prevailing conditions Tough to batldquoI wouldnrsquot say that it became very very difficult to bowl but if the pitch becomes a little better to bat on you get off to a start you start feeling more confident about the chase and thatrsquos what happened The more dew came in towards the second half of the Pakistan innings 10 overs onwards they were able to rotate strike We werenrsquot even able to get dot balls in because the pitch was obviously providing a bit more pace for the batsmen to work with The slower balls were not holding up as muchrdquo the captain saidSurely it wasnrsquot just a matter of losing the toss No doubt India got the worst of the conditions but when you have limited bowling resources and if a bowler or two have an offday and there is no option to fall back upon then things can turn sour That in nutshell was Indiarsquos plight The listless performance of the bowlers as a unit was too obvious to be overlooked for the remaining games The good thing is that India have a weekrsquos break before the next match on Sunday against New Zealand to get back to the drawing board and rework their strategy and also have practice sessions to iron things outlsquoBreak will helprsquoldquoI think it the break works really well for us as we will have time to reflect and prepare again It will help us to regroup as a team to get to the practice sessions eager to execute the things we want to and prepare in a very confident manner and then arrive on the day again to make sure this time we execute our plans We have enough confidence in our ability that with this preparation time we will come out once again being in a positive frame of mindrdquo said KohliObviously losing to Pakistan for the first time in a World Cup game has been a big blow to Indiarsquos campaign as well as pride but it should be taken as a wakeup call And itrsquos good that Kohli realises that ldquoItrsquos the start of the tournament not the end Wersquore certainly not a team that presses the panic buttonrdquo asserted the skipper1No of times Pakistan have beaten India in a World Cup clashAlso read IND v PAK Winning one game not end of world Kohli accepts being outplayed