'India's worst game in 2 years': Sitanshu Kotak delivers harsh verdict on humiliating loss to South Africa

Indian batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has admitted to India playing their worst game in the last two years against South Africa the other day. However, he refused to be too concerned with that and rather looked to focus on the upcoming games.

What India would have never dreamt of has happened to them in this ICC T20 World Cup. The defending champions entered their home World Cup as the favourites to seal it for the second time in consecutive years, thus rewriting the history of the T20 World Cup.

After the crushing defeat to South Africa, India would now have to not only win against the West Indies and Zimbabwe but also take long strides so that they can seal a semi-final spot for themselves. Their run rate has faced a major jolt with the huge defeat to South Africa.

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"It's the worst game we've played in two years" - Sitanshu Kotak on the Super-8 clash against South Africa

India were not as dominant in this World Cup as they have been over the past two years since being crowned as the World T20 champions. Especially, India's batting stalwarts have failed to make an impact, which includes opener Abhishek Sharma and no. 3 Tilak Varma.

Speaking of the last game, Suryakumar's captaincy felt a bit out of place, much like Gautam Gambhir's shocking call to bench Axar Patel for such a crucial and high-stakes game. India failed to capitalise on their good start with the ball during the middle overs, and then the batting was completely awful.

"During the bilaterals, the batting was clicking. Last game, the batting was concerning. I'm not looking at individual failures. We should take the last game in stride; it's the worst game we've played in two years," Sitanshu Kotak admitted.

He then went on to mention a few of the things India did not do right in the game, which included their openers not hitting form and so on.

"Off-spinners and bowlers bowling wide," Kotak reveals India's new mantra ahead of Zimbabwe clash

As Sitanshu Kotak made a longlist of what went wrong for India in the previous game, he also, at the same time, didn't stress much on that and instead focused on what they could do to better their chances in the forthcoming fixtures.

"Openers haven't clicked either. It's fine, I wouldn't stress too much on it. Not really that concerned. We are preparing for different challenges. Off-spinners and bowlers bowling wide," he added.

The Indian batting guru has revealed what will be India's main strategies against Zimbabwe, and that is clearly to tackle the off-spinners better and, secondly, to get to the pitch of the balls for deliveries that are kept away from the batsman's hitting arc.

Sitanshu Kotak reassures that India will adapt to the conditions from now on

Sitanshu Kotak has reassured all that one cannot be playing with a negative mindset from ball one; hence, this could not be planned if wickets go down early, what would be the change in strategy? For now, it seems that Indian players will be looking to spend some time on the pitch watching it move before they can unleash their attack.

"If you lose a couple of wickets, you have to wait and see how the ball is moving. It's more about when and how to adapt to the conditions rather than thinking negatively from ball one," he concluded.

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