CHAMPION STUFF! High risk, high reward: How ‘Total T20’ fuelled India’s march to World Cup glory

Rinus Michels, the coach and manager of Ajax and the great Dutch football team of the 1970s, tore football’s tactical textbook to shreds and came up with Totaalvoetbal, translated to English as ‘Total Football’. It liberated players from fixed, traditional roles of attacker, mid-fielder and defender, allowing players to search for space and employ the high press. Defenders attacked and attackers defended. Captain Johan Cryuff embraced the idea, took it to Ajax and Barcelona as manager, and today we have Pep Guardiola at Man City still employing it with minor tweaks of his own. The 1974 Dutch team is often called as the greatest team never to win the football World Cup. But it created a dynasty and left a legacy.

Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Since their heady triumph in the USA and West Indies in June 2024 under Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid, India’s cricket team has been playing their own version of ‘Total T20’ in the game’s most popular and marketable format. They have managed to create an intimidation factor almost similar to what Ricky Ponting’s great Australian team did in 2003 and 2007 as they won both World Cups unbeaten. Ponting’s team also pocketed two ICC Champions Trophy crowns in the same period.




Whenever India took the field in the T20 World Cup, rivals wondered, “Where is the weakness?”. India had attacking openers, a team packed with fearsome hitting potential till No. 8 and a bowling lineup with variety. Of course, South Africa found some chinks in India’s armour and beat them in the Super-8 clash in Ahmedabad. England too came close to hunting down a seemingly impossible target of 254 in their semifinal in Mumbai, although eventually the scoreboard pressure turned out to be too much.



ALSO READ: Threemendous: T20 kings keep the crown

India, since the 2024 T20 World Cup, have won eight bilateral T20I series on the bounce. Since captain Suryakumar Yadav and head coach Gautam Gambhir took over, they have won seven series. India’s last defeat in a T20I series was in Aug 2023 against the West Indies, away from home. No one remembers it. Want to jog your memory back? Hardik Pandya was the Indian captain. He was supposed to be Rohit’s heir apparent after the 10-wicket drubbing in Adelaide to England in the 2022 T20 WC semifinal.

Transitions have often been thorny in the Indian cricket ecosystem, especially when the team has had to move on from legends like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. However, in the T20I set-up, India’s transition was seamless.

The selectors and Gambhir quickly anointed ‘SKY’ as the T20I skipper, overlooking Hardik on the grounds of poor fitness and limited availability. They communicated to ‘SKY’ that he will be looked at purely as a T20I player and he would have no further role to play in the other formats.

Next, the batting template of high risk and high reward was set. India aggressively started searching for personnel who could help the team post above-par scores while batting first. The approach, especially on battingfriendly surfaces, yielded results as variables like toss and dew often had the cushion of huge scores. Players like Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma were empowered with spot security despite a string of low scores.

In 13 matches after June 29, 2024, the date of the T20 World Cup final, India have posted 200-plus batting first. They have scored 250-plus five times. Abandoning the safety-first Powerplay approach, the settling-in period was minimised or even banished. The anchor’s role was binned and impact was prioritised over landmarks. Hence, you had Samson going for a big one on 89 in the semifinal and final, perishing instead of pushing for a single and trying to get closer to a milestone. Maybe he would have wasted precious deliveries in the bargain. Had he played for his century, would the cameos of Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya have been possible?

Gambhir has publicly stated that data is overrated. However, the former opener relies on data to orchestrate match-ups and employ flexibility in the batting order to achieve the goal of over-par totals.

Spinners started bowling in powerplays and certain batters were held back, only to be unleashed on certain types of bowlers. Designated spin hitters like Shivam Dube got a consistent role. Eight batters and six bowlers became the mantra as Gambhir and ‘SKY’ prioritised ‘multi-dimensional’ players, often blurring the line between specialists and allrounders to ensure India always batted deep. If that meant keeping potent bowlers like Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav out because of their batting inabilities, so be it. To hell with social media chatter. The message was clear: batting won’t be compromised, since that allowed batters to go harder even if they lost wickets.

Barring an all-format generational superstar like Jasprit Bumrah, ‘SKY’ and Gambhir’s ‘Mission 2026’ squad was a classic T20 set-up, with specialised players. Samson, Abhishek, ‘SKY’ himself, Tilak, Rinku Singh, Hardik, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Arshdeep, Varun Chakravarthy. These are players who are unapologetic about yearning for T20 success or basking in the riches that its franchise avatar offers. They do not mouth platitudes like “Test cricket is real cricket”. Nor do they voice ambitions of wanting to play 100 Tests or scoring 10,000 Test runs. They are happy with a two-year “immortality” cycle.

The triumph on Sunday has enabled India to create a new T20 dynasty, at least for the next two years if not more.