After being knocked out of the T20 World Cup following Afghanistan’s defeat against New Zealand, Team India cancelled their optional practice session scheduled to take place at ICC Cricket Academy in Dubai, PTI reported.
India were reliant on Afghanistan’s win over the Blackcaps as it would have brought them at equal points, and with their final game scheduled against Namibia, the Men in Blue would pressed on for a higher run rate to qualify for the semi-finals.
Virat Kohli's men tried to play the catch-up game with blockbuster performances against Scotland and Afghanistan but listless performances against Pakistan and New Zealand made their path difficult.
A lot of factors went against them, with the most important one being the toss, which never went India's way. But they would be more disappointed with two mediocre performances with both bat and ball.
First, they were outclassed by Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi, who uprooted both Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul even before they could get their eyes in and the defeat in that game rubbed on to the batting unit against New Zealand as they could not play fearless cricket against a consistent and disciplined Kiwi bowling attack.
It was the final tournament for Virat Kohli as the captain of India’s T20I side and hence he will have to relinquish the leadership role from at least one format without winning any major championship.