Thought of the Day: Just call it Kohli Cricket

For those of you in Australia, as well as other people that don’t know, there is a T20 World Cup on. 

Like many other short-form tournaments that Australians don’t care about, it’s also being held in India on something that is now considered a mystery; turning pitches.

Australia played poorly early on in the Tournament but managed to make it to the Semi Finals where it was knocked out by Virat Kohli.

Australia’s performance really re-enforces two major things about T20 Cricket:

1. Australia still doesn’t know how to play it; and
2. You only need one dominant player to win a game.

On the first point, it’s worth noting that Usman Khawaja was only included in the squad when it became clear that picking Shaun Marsh would result in a public linching of Darren Lehmann, James Sutherland and anyone else in a green and gold tracksuit at work. 

To summarise, it would have been a massacre.

Australia’s first foray into international T20 was a bit of a joke, with the game being a fundraiser against New Zealand, who even wore retro outfits and wigs for the game.   

Seen here, professionals

While NZ have realized the reach that the format has to bring fans (and cash) to the game, Cricket Australia seems to have left this to the Big Bash – which is doing a bang-up job of both.

For Australia to become more successful at the T20 format, an overhaul is needed to put experienced T20 campaigners in charge and bring in T20 performers above those with reputations.

One possibility would be to make Shane Watson (you read it here first) Coach and give him the ability to pick his own players, so long as it doesn’t conflict with the Test Teams requirements.

Watson is Austrlia's most experienced T20 player and has experienced success in the format internationally. For all of the sniping about him being selfish and below-par as a Test player (he was merely the best in a very poor team for a while, then average in a good team), he is a smart cricketer who players seem to listen and respond to.

The other alternative, of course, is simply to get a Virat Kohli. 

Kohli is an interesting difference, not least because he speaks sign language.

In a 20 over game, it doesn't really matter how many wickets you take if your main batsman doesn't go out and hits 8 runs an over, consistently.

The last 2 Ashes series have been decided because the 2 best players from either team (Starc, Smith) were better or worse than the 2 best players from the other team (Broad, Root).

It seems T20 has just moved this equation back to 1, and an imposing 1 if the 1 is Kohli.  Which it is and seemingly always will be.

Maybe they should stop calling it T20 and just call it Kohli cricket?