Who would’ve thought that the star-studded Indian team who were basking in the experience of the Indian Premier League will be on the brink of an early exit from the tournament for the first time since the 2012 edition of the tournament?
It was nine years back in the same tournament when they could not make it to the knockout stage and the Virat Kohli’s men are running against time and relying on other teams’ fortunes to advance through to the semi-finals.
After they were bullied by their arch-rivals Pakistan, they were buried once again by the New Zealand side, who have made a habit of defeating them on the bog stage in ICC events.
While the men in blue are pushed against the wall, is there any chance they could come back and qualify for the finals?
Well, they can, but a lot of it is out of their hands now and what happens with other teams such as Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Namibia and Scotland.
So, how can they still qualify for the semi-finals?
First things first, they have to win all the three remaining games and that too with handsome margins so as to leave Afghanistan and New Zealand behind on the net run rate.
So it is imperative that India bat first.
The task would not be easy as their run rate has nosedived to -1.609 and other sides are significantly ahead of them in the run rate. New Zealand are 0.765 having played two games and won one of them while Afghanistan are at a staggering 3.097 run rate with two phenomenal wins over Scotland and Namibia.
To go over both Afghanistan and New Zealand, the men in blue will have to win all their games with phenomenal margins then will have to hope Afghanistan defeat New Zealand. However, they would not hope for a big win for the Afghans as it would skyrocket their net run rate.
A defeat for Afghanistan against the Blackcaps, however, will bring the curtains down on India in the tournament and will leave Virat Kohli without an ICC tournament on his CV in the T20 format.
If Afghanistan go on to defeat New Zealand in this game and India go on to defeat them by a big margin, there can be a possibility of both sides finishing the Super 12 stage at six points each.
However, amid all the permutations and combinations, if New Zealand go on to defeat Afghanistan and then continue their winning streak against Namibia and Scotland, it would be curtains for Virat Kohli’s side in the tournament.