These mistakes cost dearly to Team India. (Photo- PTI)
IND vs NZ 4th T20: In the fourth T20 match played at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, New Zealand defeated India by 50 runs and achieved its first win in the series. In this match, India won the toss and chose to bowl first, but New Zealand made a strong score of 215/7. In reply, the Indian team was all out for 165 in 18.4 overs. This defeat has proved to be an alarm bell for Team India before the T20 World Cup 2026, because the team completely faltered due to four major reasons.
Failure of stormy batsmen in the beginning
The beginning of India’s innings was bad. Opener Abhishek Sharma was out after scoring a golden duck on the very first ball, where he was caught by Matt Henry. Captain Suryakumar Yadav also returned to the pavilion early and could score only 8 runs. The collapse of the top order increased the pressure on the team, and chasing the target became difficult due to the loss of two big wickets in the powerplay itself.
Hardik Pandya’s bat is silent
Important middle order batsman Hardik Pandya also flopped. He scored only 2 runs in 5 balls and was caught out by Mitchell Santner. This failure of Hardik was a big blow for the team, because his role as a finisher is important. Although Shivam Dubey played a stormy innings of 65 runs in 23 balls, but due to lack of support from the rest of the batsmen the team could not reach even close to 200.
Star bowlers proved expensive in bowling
India’s bowlers were seen struggling against New Zealand’s batting. Harshit Rana gave away the maximum of 54 runs in 4 overs, his economy was 13.50. Jasprit Bumrah also gave 38 runs and took only 1 wicket. Ravi Bishnoi was also expensive and could take only 1 wicket after spending 49 runs. On the other hand, New Zealand scored 71 runs in the powerplay itself, which was very heavy on Team India.
lack of balance in the team
India used only five bowlers, which proved difficult due to dew. Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dubey were not used in bowling. On one hand, New Zealand spinners Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi stopped runs and took wickets in the middle overs. At the same time, Indian bowlers could not control the runs.