As far as India is concerned, they do not become a bad side overnight. There is a lot to dissect from a performance like this and there are various talking points across the board. But to me, the biggest concern here is Bumrah and his temperament. He got Fakhar out and it was a no ball. Big deal. It happens in cricket. He then bowled a good follow up for the free hit delivery and then bowled another good length ball at pace outside off. Fakhar threw his bat, french cut it for four. And then it seemed Bumrah just burst. Wides, no balls, balls either side of the wicket, no planned length or line and it continued throughout the match. You got one man in on the leg side at square leg and you bowl a leg stump half volley. It was Umesh Yadav stuff. And Bumrah is supposed to be that rare breed in cricket, the intelligent fast bowler. He definitely crumbled under the pressure yesterday and I just do not get it. They were 9/0 after 3 overs and maybe it was something like 16/0 after 3.2 and then he just combusted. That is not a good sign. For a man who is a bit of a death overs specialist, you would expect him to keep his head a bit more under such circumstances.
Ashwin has to decide if he is going to be a wicket taking spinner or not. If he is going to try and be another Harbhajan, he is not needed in this side. Its a waste of time now and the management need to have a serious chat with him and his bowling plans as far as LO cricket goes. I am not gonna blame our batting too much coz collapses happen, esp. in a big final facing a steep target. They just outplayed us and that is that. It happens in cricket, it has happened to better teams than us in the past and it will happen in the future too.
My worry about India is that this is a decidedly stronger side than the one we put out in the CT in 2013 or the WC in 2015. And yet, there is a template and a pace these guys are comfortable with. And to be fair to them, it does work 90% of the time. But the 10% that it does not work, esp. in KO games, we just look lost. We aim to be the Australia of the 2000s and yet we are still only the South Africa of the late 90s. Need to figure out if Yuvi and MSD are the best long term options. MSD should bat up the order against the Windies as he seems to have totally lost his knack of keeping the strike rotating within the fielding restriction overs. He used to do it well with some well timed aggression mixed with sharp rotation of the strike in his early years and he needs to get it back. You cannot be a world beating side if you can't have folks at #4 and #5 who can't bat through the innings.