India’s Best T20 International XI: A Statistical and Tactical Look
India had won the inaugural edition of the World T20 (now rechristened as the T20 World Cup) in 2007, but since then, they’ve had only 1 final and 1 semi-final appearance which came in 2014 and 2016 respectively. In the recent past, there has been a severe degree of criticism of the approach that India has adopted for this format, with one of the major ones being the fact that they approach the T20 game as an extension of the ODI game and thus pick a lot of players who may not be as successful in the T20 format as they would in ODIs. In this article, I would be trying to examine what should be India’s ideal T20 line-up through a statistical and tactical lens. I would be looking at the IPL records in the past 3 seasons (2018, 2019 and 2020) as well as their overall record in T20 Internationals, for those who are capped to determine the best possible XI. Tactical Outlook for the XI: - The best T20 XIs today, be it in the international arena or the franchise circuit, teams have always a...