Team India stumbles yet again

India's losing streak continued with a defeat in the first of the two T20 games that are slotted in the schedule. The Australians surprised by naming a new skipper for this format of the game and also brought back Brad Hogg, who had retired from Test cricket four years ago. Hogg is 40 years old and Brett Lee is no spring chicken either, but they look sprightly and showed their energy levels on the field not only with the ball, but also while diving and striving to stop every run.

The Indian team certainly looked more athletic on the field than in the Tests but the batting and bowling did not have the spark that was anticipated. What the Australian selection has showed is that horses for courses is their policy. The T20 World Cup is later in the year in Sri Lanka and the Australians obviously want to win that as that is the one format that they have not won a World Cup. That is the reason perhaps why the selection of older experienced players like Hogg and Lee.

Be that as it may, the Australians simply carried too many guns for the Indians and once a team is chasing at more than 8 runs an over, it needs not only a brisk start, but also partnerships which did not quite happen for the Indians. Even in the Tests there was hardly a partnership excepting perhaps the one between Kohli and Saha.

Sehwag will be keen to prove a point

The rapid loss of wickets braked India's progress and despite valiant efforts from Raina and skipper Dhoni, it was a mountain too high to climb. Ashwin also batted well but he has to work on his athleticism for in this format every run matters.

India play much more domestic T20 cricket than anywhere else, but despite all that experience they have come a cropper in this form of the game at the international level. It is pretty much like England, who too had more limited overs competitions in their domestic cricket than anywhere else, but just not able to use all that match playing experience into wins on the world stage. India’s T20 win in the ICC World Cup came when they hardly played any T20 cricket. You would expect the greater the match practice the better the performance would be, but that is not how it has panned out.

This format is what brought David Warner to the fore and he showed just why by clubbing some extraordinary hits out of the ground. Although outscored at the start by Warner, Wade showed why he was preferred to Brad Haddin with a polished display of batting and in doing so Australia have found an alternative if Haddin's form slips up.

The Australian fielding was top class and their bowlers bowled to a plan. Still they will be looking to have some younger bowlers coming through to take over from Lee and Hogg. This is an unfriendly format for any bowler and what this does is toughen them up mentally. That then can stand in good stead for the longer format of the game.

India have stumbled and it looks like an action replay of what happened in England not too long ago where they lost every game in whichever format it was played. Perhaps, the participation of their southern neighbours Sri Lanka in the limited overs tri-series gives them some hope of having a win against their name. Time will tell.