Is it a surprise.......?????

             The defending champion, India are out of the T20 world cup even before they reached the knockout round. They lost two out of two matches in super eight round and even a win against South Africa can just serve as a mere consolation now. Every single expert tipped India to win this event . But all of that was based just on the reputation Indian players, especially batsmen had managed to get during IPL. Now, let's take a look on whether it was a couple of off days for India or it was some sort of an inevitable.    

             So, we start right from squad selection. In batting department, it was more or less justifiable. But in bowling department, those five people led by K. Shrikant had done miracles. They had selected Ishant Sharma. A bowler who even lost his place in the playing eleven of KKR side, a side which finished last in the points table, managed to get into Indian squad and that too ahead of options like Ashish Nehra, one of the bests in the business right now. One might argue and rightly so that Nehra didn't do much good before the selection comity meeting, but there were options like Munaf Patel and L. Balaji too who were far more superior than Ishant for T20. Selectors even got a chance to rectify their mistake, but they ruined it. They could have sent an extra paceman in place of Virendra Sehwag but they sent Dinesh Karthik, a player whose possibility  of making it in the final eleven was negligible as long as Dhoni was there.

              When it came to playing eleven selection selection, things got even worse. They haven't given Praveen Kumar a single appearance. Given his ability to swing the new ball, he could have been more than handful in bowling friendly English conditions. They have dropped Irfan Pathan, one of the key players in this format, for a must win game against England. They have given RP Singh, India's specialist for death overs, a game only when it came to do or die for India and he has shown in that game that if he was there in earlier matches, things could have gone much more smoother for India. What's more, they have given Ishant all four matches.

               India have a captain who is highly overrated. Yes, he is the best available option for India right now but that doesn't make him a good captain. He is the best only because the rest are either too unexperienced or too irresponsible to take the job. His batting form is awful, he shuffles the batting order randomly or probably for his own interests and  his too much faith in Ishant Sharma has cost India dearly. His decision to give Ishant crucial overs has probably cost India both the matches and he did it despite of having better options available on both occasions.

                So, we might be a little bit surprised on finding our team where it is right now, but it was always on the cards. India never had what it takes to win an event like this.