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In T20s, how is success measured? What is the formula for calculating batting success in a T20 World Cup with mostly difficult pitches?
Measuring each one separately is the simplest. Currently ranking third in the T20 World Cup run-scoring standings with 248 runs at an average of 41.33 and a strike rate of 155.97 is Rohit Sharma. With a strike rate of 100.00 and an average of 10.71, Virat Kohli has made 75. Based on those figures, one could argue that Rohit has been a huge success and Kohli, well, not so much.
It’s a lot more complicated because batting in T20, much more than in the other formats, is a team thing.
While it is known that to bat this style is to walk a fine line between high-impact innings and early dismissal, both Rohit and Kohli have attempted to bat in a way that has tested them and doesn’t necessarily come naturally to either of them. They’ve both adopted this batting strategy because, if a lineup consisting of players with depth, talent, and a variety of skill sets hits in this manner, enough players will probably bat well most of the time and contribute to totals that offer their team a fair chance of winning games.
To bat in this manner is to accept the possibility that your results may be unremarkable in a competition like this World Cup, where a hitter can play a maximum of 10 innings.
Kohli has the task of finishing this World Cup with unremarkable stats, but it’s unlikely that anyone in his locker room will believe he batted poorly.
Rahul struck Reece Topley with what may have been the most beautifully timed six of India’s semi-final match against England—a masterful bottom-handed sweep over wide long-on. The following ball, he was bowled while trying a similar hit off a slightly shorter and more dangerous ball.
Rohit had tried a closed-bat-face whip over the leg side, again off Topley, not long before Kohli was out. He’d given it four top edges.
This is a story of a fantastic, game-winning performance by Rohit, but we have talked a lot about Kohli because, as we have already established, hitting in T20 is far more team-oriented than it is in other formats. Thus, it’s critical that we maintain perspective.
Because it was a semifinal against England, it was a given that parallels would be drawn to that infamous drubbing of Adelaide 2022 at the same stage. In that game, an utterly out of sorts Rohit and a cautious Kohli took India to a total that looked so out of place that the relevance of two of the greatest players was put into question.
Once more, England won the toss and put India in. Adelaide’s echoes could be heard everywhere. However, India was not batting as well as they had in Adelaide. Their ability to bat differently was mostly due to their lineup. They used a 1:1 combination of right- and left-hand options, with pace-hitters and spin-hitters interspersed, to bat all the way down to No. 8.
And much of it was due to the fact that their duo with the most seniority fully embraced this new approach. This time, Rohit was the one with the early advantage that let him comprehend the circumstances and formulate a run-scoring plan.
He finished with a score of 57 off 39 balls, hitting two sixes and six fours in the process. However, two mishits off Jofra Archer in the fourth over of India’s innings may have been the strokes that defined his performance. Rohit scored two runs from both of the skewed shots, which were over the off-side ring—the first over mid-off and the second over the covers.
He knew he would probably score two runs if he cleared the fielder on the 30-yard line, but his goal was still to score as many runs as possible off this ball. Rohit was bringing to this T20 innings the traditional attributes of a full (ish) face and a straight (ish) bat in his street-smart, spontaneous style.
Shortly afterward, Suryakumar Yadav also performed this action in response to a slower ball from Sam Curran that he could have otherwise flicked with a complete wrist twist. This time, he made a boundary along the ground, checked his bat-swing, and displayed a full face. It wasn’t a perfectly controlled shot, but it wasn’t mishandled either.
These images depicted a batting lineup figuring out how to score as many runs as possible on a challenging pitch. In their powerplay in Providence, India made 46 for 2; in the Adelaide semi-final, on a far truer surface, they had made 38 for 1.
And since Rohit was Rohit and Suryakumar was Suryakumar, occasionally there was batting that defied the rules. Rohit showed off all of his skills and, with the barest of straight-bat blows, sent a delivery from Topley hurtling to the boundary of cover. To raise Chris Jordan above the fine-leg boundary, Suryakumar whipped his wrists and leaned across to the off side. Great shotmakers sometimes just do what they do; no justification is necessary because it doesn’t make logic.
The history of India’s Twenty20 campaign has come to see Adelaide 2022 as something of a turning point, a repetition of the teachings that were initially imparted in Mumbai in 2016. Providence 2024 still has the potential to wrap up the story for both them and Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. In their acceptance of this new manner, they have thus far had differing results, but for India to reach this stage, they both have had to buy in.