In the context of modern-day T20 batting, the Indian team’s modus operandi can be termed “traditional”. They start slow, maintain a par-for-the-course Powerplay score, then get settled in the middle overs, before taking off in the death overs. This approach has often been detrimental for the team, especially while batting first.
In comparison with power-hitting teams like England, New Zealand and West Indies, India’s top five batsmen are more or less similar in what they have to offer. Rather, they have been so far. Safe and prudent, conservatism over unorthodoxy.

All that is set to change, according to skipper Virat Kohli.
“We have played with a certain kind of pattern in the past. But, if you look at the squad for this (England) series, the additions we have made, we have tried to address a few things that we needed in specific. Guys who can be X-factors with the bat and do things which are the need of the hour in T20 cricket,” Kohli said, referring to the likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant.
“From this series onwards, we are going to play a different brand of T20 cricket. There are some very exciting X-factor players in our team now. These guys have shown their prowess on a regular basis in the IPL. Now, it will be interesting to see how they go about in these five games.”
Kohli now expects the top-order players like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and himself to “play more freely” and not get bogged down.
“This time around you will see the top-order guys playing more freely, more expressive in terms of approaching their innings… even after we have lost a couple of wickets. That wasn’t the case in the past, to be honest. It’s because we did not have enough depth in the batting to play freely for about 10 to 12 overs. But I see much more positivity from this series onwards,” stated Kohli.
“The players that we’ve added in the squad are precisely to give our batting more depth. We want to be a side that plays free cricket, not have any baggage of lack of depth or one guy having to bat long enough to make sure we get to a big total.
“We have explosive guys in the team who can change the game at any stage and that is exactly what we have tried to address.”