Around
6:30
pm,
New
Zealand
hit
the
winning
runs
against
Afghanistan
much
to
the
disappointment
of
the
Indian
fans,
who
were
hoping
against
hope
that
a
miracle
will
happen
under
the
blazing
afternoon
sun
at
the
Sheikh
Zayed
Stadium
in
Abu
Dhabi.
The
mood
in
the
Indian
camp
was
evident
when
BCCI’s
official
media
WhatsApp
group
had
a
message
for
the
journalists,
“The
optional
training
session
in
the
evening
has
been
cancelled.”
It
was
understandable
dejection
as
for
the
first
time
since
the
2012
edition
of
this
event,
India
had
failed
to
make
the
knockout
stage
of
an
ICC
event.
The
Indian
players,
who
kept
an
eye
on
the
TV
watching
Afghanistan
battle
it
out
against
the
Black
Caps,
knew
by
the
halfway
stage
of
the
game
that
all
of
them
would
now
have
to
take
the
flight
back
to
their
respective
cities
on
Tuesday,
a
welcome
break
from
the
bio-bubble
but
not
in
the
way
they
would
have
liked.
Against
Namibia,
they
will
surely
win
it
big
and
skipper
Kohli
would
do
a
world
of
good
if
he
allows
the
likes
of
Rahul
Chahar
to
get
a
game
and
give
Ishan
Kishan
another
go.
The
senior
players
would
gain
precious
little
against
the
David
Wieses
of
the
world
save
for
beefing
up
their
individual
statistics.
Very
rarely
has
an
Indian
team
played
such
an
inconsequential
game
at
an
ICC
event
since
its
last
league
game
in
the
1992
World
Cup
against
South
Africa
after
already
being
out
of
the
race
for
the
semi-finals.
It’s
not
the
first
time
that
India
are
out
of
a
global
tournament
before
the
last
four
stage
but
never
has
it
been
so
frustrating
where
one
could
clearly
read
the
writing
on
the
wall.
India
lost
two
crucial
tosses,
batted
awfully
in
slightly,
if
not
very,
testing
conditions
and
then
on
a
dew-laden
surface
bowled
atrociously.
It
was
as
if
the
heavens
had
conspired
that
nothing
should
go
well
for
the
team
after
it
had
a
great
run
in
England.
And
that
is
something
that
will
hurt
Shastri,
a
proud
man,
who
has
done
his
bit
to
make
this
a
formidable
all-condition
Test
team
with
a
lethal
fast
bowling
attack.
For
Kohli,
who
is
all
set
to
even
lose
his
ODI
captaincy
in
the
coming
days,
this
wasn’t
how
he
would
have
liked
to
end
his
T20
captaincy
stint
with
the
national
team
having
already
quit
IPL
captaincy.
It
is
also
the
first
time
since
the
2013
Champions
Trophy
that
an
Indian
men’s
team
has
failed
to
reach
at
least
the
semi-final
stage
of
an
ICC
event.
They
were
champions
in
the
50
over
Champions
Trophy
in
2013,
followed
by
runners-up
finish
in
T20
World
Cup
in
2014.
In
the
2015
ODI
World
Cup,
the
team
lost
in
the
semifinals.
The
2016
T20
World
Cup
saw
them
reach
the
last
four
stage
while
they
lost
to
Pakistan
in
the
2017
final
of
the
50-over
Champions
Trophy.
In
2019,
their
ODI
World
Cup
campaign
ended
in
the
semi-final
and
the
two-year-long
World
Test
Championship
also
ended
in
a
finale
defeat.
A
combination
of
factors
led
to
this
debacle
and
if
Kohli’s
poor
captaincy
and
selection
is
one
factor,
the
problems
were
certainly
compounded
by
players
like
Hardik
Pandya,
who
didn’t
reveal
the
full
extent
of
their
fitness
status
to
the
national
selectors.
While
Pandya
did
show
his
original
self
against
Afghanistan,
he
would
get
very
little
credit
for
that
performance
after
failing
to
score
as
a
pure
batter
against
quality
attacks
like
Pakistan
and
New
Zealand.
It
is
still
not
clear
whether
Kohli
will
be
seen
as
a
one-format
captain
in
Test
matches
but
his
performance
in
the
last
four
ICC
tournaments
leave
a
lot
to
be
desired.
Now
that
he
is
approaching
mid-30s
and
showing
signs
of
playing
a
conservative
game
and
one
can
only
hope
that
with
eleven
months
left
for
the
next
T20
World
Cup,
India
would
start
with
a
fresh
slate
and
fresher
approach.
Namibia
have
managed
to
beat
only
Scotland
so
far
in
their
Super
12
engagements
after
making
the
tournament
proper
for
the
first
time
in
the
T20
format.
Teams:
India:
Virat
Kohli
(captain),
Rohit
Sharma,
KL
Rahul,
Suryakumar
Yadav,
Ishan
Kishan,
Hardik
Pandya,
Rishabh
Pant
(wk),
Ravindra
Jadeja,
Ravichandran
Ashwin,
Bhuvneshwar
Kumar,
Jasprit
Bumrah,
Mohammed
Shami,
Rahul
Chahar,
Varun
Chakravarthy,
Shardul
Thakur
Namibia:
Gerhard
Erasmus
(c),
Stephen
Baard,
Karl
Birkenstock.
Michau
du
Preez,
Jan
Frylinck,
Zane
Green,
Nicol
Lofie-Eaton,
Bernard
Scholtz,
Ben
Shikongo,
JJ
Smit,
Ruben
Trumpelmann,
Michael
van
Lingen,
David
Wiese,
Craig
Williams
and
Pikky
Ya
France.
Match
Starts
@
7:30
pm
IST.
Channels:
Starsports
Network
Live
Streaming:
Hotstar.com
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