Ahmedabad: The hush at the Narendra Modi Stadium was not the silence of a narrow defeat. It was the silence of exposure — of a team stripped of its mythology. A batting unit marketed as deep, dynamic and fearless was reduced to 111 all out in pursuit of 187, India’s heaviest defeat in T20 internationals.
This was not merely a bad night. It was an uncomfortable truth. Under Suryakumar Yadav, India have built an identity around intent — speed, range and improvisation. But elite cricket does not reward intent alone. It rewards control. And when South Africa applied sustained pressure, India did not bend. They broke.
The irony is that India owned the opening act. Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh sliced through South Africa’s top order with surgical precision. At 20 for 3, with Quinton de Kock, Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton dismissed, India had authored the perfect powerplay. Matches are built — and often won — from such positions.
India squandered it. This team has developed a dangerous habit of mistaking moments for mastery. When David Miller counterpunched with a blistering 63 and Dewald Brevis played with audacious freedom, India had no second plan. Their spinners leaked. Their lengths drifted. Their grip loosened. South Africa surged to 187 — not an unmanageable total, but one that demanded a chase constructed on method rather than impulse.
What followed was not a chase. It was a collapse masquerading as intent. Ishan Kishan fell for a duck. Tilak Varma chased width. Abhishek Sharma teased responsibility before succumbing to recklessness. At 5 for 2, panic was palpable. At 57 for 5, defeat felt inevitable.
Suryakumar’s own dismissal — a tame pick-out to midwicket — was symbolic. The most inventive T20 batter of his generation appeared to search for stability in a line-up that offered none. This is the central fault line: without Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, there is no ballast. No one to absorb pressure. No one to recalibrate tempo. Only hitters hoping momentum will rescue them.
It rarely does. The idea of “batting depth” has become India’s favourite illusion. Depth matters only when the top order lays a platform. Here, the top order is the collapse. The middle order reacts. The lower order is exposed.
Selection compounded the confusion. Axar Patel’s absence on a surface offering grip was perplexing. Persisting with undefined roles bordered on stubbornness. This is no longer experimentation; it is a misreading of tournament cricket’s demands.
South Africa, by contrast, were ruthlessly clear. Markram’s side did not panic at 20 for 3. They rebuilt with intent. With the ball, they were relentless — disciplined lines, intelligent variations and a match-turning spell from Keshav Maharaj that dismantled India’s lower middle order. No theatrics. Just execution.