Legend has it that during the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, British Admiral Horatio Nelson, upon receiving a signal to retreat, deliberately held his telescope to his blind eye and said, “I really do not see the signal!” Many believe that is how the idiom, ‘turning a blind eye’, originated.
While the historical authenticity of the story may be contested, it would be beyond debate if we say that Sitanshu Kotak, Team India’s batting coach, sounded like Admiral Nelson while addressing the media conference ahead of India’s do-or-die Super Eight match against Zimbabwe.
In the batting coach’s words, all is well with Team India. Abhishek Sharma scoring 0, 0, 0, 15 in his last four games? No worry. Tilak Varma averaging just 21.40 with a strike rate of 118.88 in this T20 World Cup? No worry. Opposition off-spinners successfully neutralising India’s top-order firepower? No worry.
Kotak’s stoic defence to every probing question hurled at him at the media conference would do Rahul Dravid proud.
When asked about India’s visibly poor batting in the tournament so far, Kotak replied: “See, all the bilaterals and all, batting was really clicking well. In this World Cup also we were doing well, only the last game... I mean, like in a year-and-a-half, roughly, only a couple of times we got less than 150. So I am not really looking at an individual, how many times somebody failed or how, because then we start putting pressure on the way they bat. We should just not think about it too much and move ahead.”
The reality, however, is very different. India collapsed to 77/6 against the USA before Suryakumar Yadav rescued them. Against Namibia, they put up a 200-plus total, but were tormented by the part-time spin of Gerhard Erasmus (4/20). If Nambia had a few other good bowlers, one shudders to think what would have happened. Then, versus Pakistan, it was more of Ishan Kishan’s individual brilliance that covered up jittery response of the other batters. And lastly, when South Africa came with plan and precision, the India batters simply surrendered, as they were skittled out for 111.
Clearly, it’s not just about “the last game” as Kotak would like us to believe.
Someone pointed out how the Indian batters, especially the top order, dived head-first into an aggressive stance, trying to blast the opposition bowlers from ball one. Isn’t there a need to show better temperament? The Indian think-tank doesn’t think so, they believe temperament has no place in T20s.
“In T20s, if you worry too much about temperament, not playing your shots freely, there will be other problems… If you lose a couple of wickets, you have to try and see a few balls and play normal cricket for the next six to eight balls. If you worry from ball one, that you want to try and be careful and not utilise the Powerplay and all, I think most of the time, any team does that, ends up scoring below par. So it is more about planning when you want to adapt the conditions and the situation and then how you want to execute, rather than thinking negative from over one,” Kotak explained.
Again, one begs to differ. When match after match you face the same problem, it’s only wise to tweak your ways. There might be another way to scale the mountain.
What is the harm if Abhishek allows himself some time before throwing the kitchen sink at the rival bowlers? Even Sunil Gavaskar recently said that Abhishek would do well take a few singles to get himself going before going for the big shots. One believes that is how temperament is implemented in T20s. So whom to believe? Gavaskar or Kotak?
Kotak believes Abhishek is “not far” from form and Tilak is “one six or four away” from improving his strike rate.
The problem is, all of what Kotak said may come true on Thursday. India may thrash Zimbabwe, pumping more air into their balloon of confidence.
As the story goes, Admiral Nelson had won the first Battle of Copenhagen. So what if he had turned a blind eye to the situation?