Delhi: A very special thing has been seen in this T20 World Cup which is different from the previous few ICC tournaments. Experts are associating Team India with this the most. The special thing in this T20 World Cup is the low scoring rate. If even Team India could not break this illusion then leave aside the rest of the team.
The host broadcaster exaggerated the expectations of rain of runs even before the start of the tournament. This did not happen. Before every match of Team India, they kept saying that for the first time a record of score of 300 can be made. Now that there is only one match left in the group round, the pitches, progress of the associates and history are showing something different. When Team India could not overcome these, then forget about other teams. This became clear from the very first match against USA. India captain Suryakumar Yadav won that match by scoring 84 runs from 49 balls to rescue the team from the trouble of 46/4, even then the score of 161/9 was far short of the marketing hype of a score of 300 or more. The question of whether India will be the first team to cross the 300-run mark in the T20 World Cup has been put to rest.

It is not that 300 cannot be made. What may be generally overlooked is that three countries, Zimbabwe, Nepal and England, have scored more than 300 runs in T20 Internationals. Team India itself had scored 271 runs for 5 wickets against New Zealand in its last T20 before the World Cup and had scored runs at an average of 12.35 per over during the series. This is equal to an average of 247 runs in the entire 20 over innings. The attack of Namibia and Netherlands is less difficult than that of New Zealand but during this World Cup, Team India could not even reach this height.

Many people had predicted that India would score 300 runs. In his inaugural T20 World Cup match, when he batted first against the United States in Mumbai, everything was set for this record. Instead, they stumbled to 161-9, which was enough for a win, but far from the heights touted in the ad. The truth is that in the T20 World Cup, no team reached 200 till the seventh match (Scotland crossed this mark in their win over Italy).

The tournament matches have further reinforced an ongoing trend in T20: lower scores in international tournaments. In all T20 matches since 2020, the average run rate is 7.95, which increases to 8.87 in the IPL. The average run rate so far in this T20 World Cup is not even a modest 7.50 and the average score in 20 overs is equal to 147.

After the match against USA, Ashwin said: ‘India expected a typical Wankhede Stadium pitch, but what they got was completely different and quite surprising.’ The pitch was completely different from IPL. India recorded a net run rate of 2.50 in the group round: incidentally 80 overs played and 80 overs bowled. While another 738 runs were scored, 538 runs were scored by the opposition batsman. India is the only team whose net run rate is more than 2.

Will this trend change in the Super 8 round?

Fun Fact:

* Abhishek Sharma is not alone. Players who played three innings in the T20 World Cup and were out on 0 in all three: Ashish Nehra (India) 2010-16, Roger Mukasa (Uganda) 2024 and now Abhishek Sharma (India) 2026.

The post India has to win the World Cup, Day 13: Dream of 300 broken in T20 World Cup! Will Team India change the trend? appeared first on Read Hindi.