After a tough time in Test cricket over the last few months, India returned to the comfort of T20Is in Kolkata and hit the ground running across selection, tactics, and execution, writes Naman Agarwal from the Eden Gardens.
In the recent Australia Test series defeat, the India management displayed a strange adamance on cushioning their batting with all-rounders at the cost of their ability to take 20 wickets. Despite needing an outright victory in the last Test to equalise, they inexplicably picked a team aimed at avoiding defeat, when just avoiding defeat wouldn't have been enough.
The solution looked obvious - pick an extra seamer over a spin-bowling all-rounder - but India seemed to be bound by self-imposed shackles of fear, which eventually culminated in a historically low end to the Test season.
But when they turned up in Kolkata for the first T20I of the new white-ball season, all that fear vanished into thin air.
It started at the toss. Mohammed Shami was expected to make his much-awaited comeback at his home ground. Videos with filmmaking-level production had been shot and uploaded by the BCCI, marking his return. "Born and brought up in UP, made in Bengal," is how Shami had started his speech at an event hosted by the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) at the Eden Gardens two days ahead of the game. The stage was set. Yet, his name found no mention in the teamsheet, dampening the local crowd's spirits to some extent. It wouldn't stay like that for long.
