How Team India change approach after 2022?:Enter in fourth consecutive ICC finals; record 75% win rate since 2024

On November 10, 2022, Team India, who reached the T20 World Cup semi-final, was defeated by England. The defeat wasn’t minor – they achieved the target of 169 runs in 16 overs without losing any wickets. After the match, Indian captain Rohit Sharma told wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, “We need to change.” Today is March 8, 2026. In three and a half years, ICC has conducted 4 white ball cricket tournaments, Team India reached the final in all of them. Though they were runners-up in one, they won the trophy in 2. Today, the team will take on New Zealand with the intention of winning their third consecutive title. What exactly changed in Indian cricket after 2022 that the team has reached their fourth consecutive ICC final? Let’s find out in the story… Slow Batting Cost World Cup Semi-final In the 2022 World Cup semifinal, India’s biggest weakness was their run rate and batters’ strike rate. In the first 6 overs, Indian batsmen would forget to score runs in their effort to save wickets. The same happened in Adelaide. The team could only score 38 runs in 6 overs, and the score remained at 80 runs in 13 overs. Virat Kohli then took the score to 168 with Hardik Pandya. Hardik scored 63 off 33 balls and Kohli made 50 off 40 balls. The target of 169 was made to look small by English openers Jos Buttler and Alex Hales. Both scored 63 runs in the powerplay and achieved the target in just 16 overs. Rohit Sharma changed approach, provided attacking start After the 2022 semifinal, Captain Rohit sat dejected in the dressing room. Karthik approached him and asked what happened? Then Rohit said, “We need to change, we can’t win the World Cup with this approach. We need to play faster.” After the tournament, instead of playing long innings, Rohit focused on giving the team quick starts. One bad match made us World Cup runner-up The T-20 World Cup ended, the next target was the ODI World Cup. Rohit adopted an attacking approach in this format too. He opened with Shubman Gill but consistently scored quick runs from one end. So that players get more time to settle in middle overs. India gave their best in all three departments and won the ODI Asia Cup before the World Cup. India then won 10 consecutive matches to secure a place in the home World Cup final. The title match was played on November 19, 2023 at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Australia won the toss and chose to field. On a difficult pitch, India could only score 240 runs. In the second innings, due to dew, batting became easier and bowling became difficult. The Kangaroo team had lost 3 wickets for 47 runs, but Travis Head scored a century to lead the team to victory. Opening with Virat Kohli, Won 64% T20Is The T20 World Cup was scheduled just 7 months after the ODI heartbreak. Coach Rahul Dravid made a strategy with the captain and made Kohli a new opener in T20s. There was more focus on all-rounders along with explosive batters. During this period, the team also won 64% of T20s. For the World Cup in America and West Indies, all-rounders like Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja were included. All four were also included in the playing-11 for most matches, so that all players remain ready for the big stage. India became T-20 World Champion after 17 years India played their group stage matches in America. They entered Super-8 by defeating America, Ireland and Pakistan. In the second round, India secured a place in the semi-finals by defeating Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The last match in the group was against Australia, the team settled the ODI final score by defeating the Kangaroo team and didn’t even let them reach the knockout round. The semifinal was against England. India batted first, captain Rohit along with Suryakumar Yadav took the team to 171 runs on a difficult pitch. Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav turned the match with their bowling and bundled out England for just 103 runs. In the final, India defeated South Africa by a close margin of 7 runs and won the T20 World Cup after 17 years. This was India’s first ICC trophy in 11 years, previously the team had won the Champions Trophy in 2013. Champions Trophy also won after 12 years After winning the T20 World Cup, Rohit, Kohli and Jadeja retired from the shortest format. The next target was the Champions Trophy. In the tournament that started in February, India played all their matches in Dubai, UAE. The pitches here were slow, but Rohit did not change his attacking approach. While opening, he gave the team a quick start every time. India entered the semi-finals by defeating Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh in the group stage. In the semi-final, Australia set a difficult target of 265. Virat Kohli, who scored a century against Pakistan, made 84 runs and led the team to a 4-wicket victory. In the final, India defeated New Zealand by 4 wickets and won their second consecutive ICC tournament. All-rounders strategy won 84% T20Is After the T20 World Cup, Gautam Gambhir became India’s coach, and after Rohit, Suryakumar Yadav got command in this format. Together, they advanced Rohit’s all-rounders strategy to the next level. Along with Hardik, Dubey and Axar, they included Harshit Rana, Tilak Varma and Abhishek Sharma. All three are effective in both batting and bowling. From the 2024 World Cup to before this World Cup, Team India played 41 T-20s. Won 33 and lost just 6. That means 84% success rate in matches. During this period, 2 matches remained without result, 2 wins came in super overs. India adopted an attacking strategy from first to last ball and scored over 200 runs 13 times. The team also scored 283 runs against South Africa and 297 runs against Bangladesh. 2 batters scored 1000+ Runs After World Cup 2024, Team India groomed Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson for the opening position. Meanwhile, Tilak Varma established himself at number 3. Abhishek and Tilak scored more than 1000 runs, and both reached the top 2 positions in T20 batters ranking. Samson scored 3 centuries. To support them, Surya, Hardik, Dubey, Axar and Rinku were present. Perfect combination of spin and pace Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel were consistently bowling well. Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana also joined the team to support them. During this time, Varun took 70 wickets and reached number 1 in T-20 bowlers ranking. Though Harshit was ruled out of the World Cup due to injury, Arshdeep didn’t let his absence be felt. Team India also won the T-20 Asia Cup on the strength of excellent combination of batting, bowling and fielding. India defeated Pakistan in all three matches in the group stage, Super-4 and final. The team did not lose a single match throughout the tournament. Entered World Cup as favourites Since the last World Cup, Team India’s winning rate has been the best worldwide. Among the 20 teams that were part of the World Cup, after India, Nepal won the most matches at 76%. Australia, UAE, and Pakistan were at third, fourth, and fifth positions respectively. However, except for India, no team could make it to the semifinals of the current tournament. Apart from Pakistan, the other 3 teams were eliminated even before Super-8. This means India maintained its bilateral series form in the World Cup as well. Reached the home World Cup final After the bilateral series and Asia Cup came the World Cup. India faced some problems in initial matches against America and Netherlands, but the team entered Super-8 by defeating Namibia and Pakistan by big margins. In the second round, South Africa defeated India in the very first match. Abhishek went out of form, while Samson couldn’t even make it to the playing-11. Against Zimbabwe, Sanju made a comeback and the team scored 256 runs. In the crucial match against West Indies, Samson scored 97 runs to secure the team’s victory. Sanju then scored 89 runs against England in the semifinal and won his second consecutive Player of the Match award. Still haven’t defeated New Zealand Team India will face New Zealand in the World Cup final. India is in the T20 World Cup title match for the fourth time, having previously defeated Pakistan and South Africa. While they lost to Sri Lanka, this will be their first encounter with the Kiwi team. Just before the World Cup, India defeated New Zealand 4-1 in a T20 series in their home, but in the World Cup, the record and history are completely in favor of the Kiwi team. 3 matches have been played between the two so far. New Zealand won every time. India lost by 10 runs in 2007, 47 runs in 2016, and 8 wickets in 2021. No team has won 3 titles in the T20 World Cup, nor has any team won the title on their home ground. After Sri Lanka in 2012, India is the only team that has made it to the final on their home ground. Sri Lanka was the runner-up then. Moreover, no team has won consecutive titles. This means India faces the challenge of breaking 4 major records.