Dear Team India:
We heard all about your star-studded team in 2009, as you were equipped with 50+ games of experience due to the IPL in South Africa. You practiced hitting 6s on 50 metre boundaries, and taking wickets against substandard batsmen, and called it a 'Citi moment of success'. The pitches in South Africa were "difficult" to bat on, and the batsmen were striking the ball as hard as ever across those 45 metre boundaries. The Indian team in that 2009 T20 WC gave a star performance in which they only had wins against Bangladesh and Ireland to show for. The excuses made by Coach Kirsten? Fatigue due to the menace that is the IPL. What lessons were learned by the Indian team in 2009? I still don't forget, Dhoni saying that he already had one eye on the T20 WC in the West Indies. At the time, the Indian players got plenty of phainty from the Indian media and supporters about their inability to play the short ball. Has anything changed? Not really.
In 2010, a failure to win a single Super 8 game (once again). The same excuses come back up. Who should not have played, who should have played (it is ironic that it was Jadeja who played a slow 25 off 35 ball innings in 2009 vs England, and is again being admonished for his poor performance in 2010). We again see the failure of the Indian batting line-up against short ball bowling. Nothing's changed since 2009.
The IPL (a useless competition with substandard bowlers and batsmen being battered around by stars in a ground that has a radius of no more than 60 metres) ended a grand total of 5 days before the WC, so exactly where are the BCCI's loyalties? Considering that Kirsten had specificially blamed the IPL for fatigue in 2009, surely if the BCCI really had Team India on it's mind, would not the IPL have ended maybe a week earlier at the very least? I'm intrigued to hear the excuses this time around. Dhoni didn't blame the IPL, but where's that paycheck coming from?
Also, while we're at it, produce a god damn bowler India. Your best bowler in this tournament was considered by all critics and fans alike to be Harbhajan Singh. He got a grand total of 0 wickets in the 20 overs he bowled. That is downright pathetic in T20 - his role is to be an attacking bowler, to get his team wickets to slow down the run rate. Granted, the economy rate is there, but 0 wickets?
Perhaps it's time for a new captain too. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is in my opinion, a *****. He comes in when his openers get his team off to a flying start, and whenever quick wickets fall, he hides behind his rockstars that consist of Yuvraj and Rohit Sharma.
Now India, it's time to take your rockstars and titans home. Perhaps I won't get to write something so condemning and embarassing (to you guys) in the next competition. As they say, the 3rd time is the charm