DUBAI: India deserve more respect despite their faltering campaign at the Twenty20 World Cup, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja said after the team’s comprehensive victory against Scotland on Friday.

The 2007 champions risk early exit after being thrashed by Pakistan and New Zealand, the top two teams in Group II, in their first two matches.

They snapped their losing streak against Afghanistan earlier this week. However, to have any chance of reaching the last four, India have to rely on the Afghans beating New Zealand on Sunday and then Virat Kohli’s men must defeat Namibia a day later.

“We as a team have played consistently well in the last three years across formats, at home and away,” Jadeja, whose 3-15 against Scotland earned him the man-of-the-match award, said after their eight-wicket victory.

“We may have been off-colour in a couple of matches, but it’s wrong to judge us by that.”

Toss has played a vital role in the tournament with chasing teams holding a clear edge and India captain Kohli was unlucky with the toss of coin in the first three matches.

“Batting the first innings has been a challenge with the ball gripping the surface and stopping a bit,” Jadeja said.

“With the dew setting in, the pitch gets flat and batting becomes lot easier. We’ve seen the same team looking quite different depending on when they batted.

“Teams batting first have struggled to get good starts, which is so important in T20 cricket.”

Jadeja conceded winning the final group match may not be enough but said dwelling on what went wrong was pointless.

“There is no panic in the dressing room. We are not thinking of our loss in the first two matches. We got an opportunity and we are trying to make it count.”

On the consequences of New Zealand beating Afghanistan on Sunday, a smiling Jadeja was quick to say we will “pack our backs and go home”.

New Zealand had stayed on course for the semi-finals with a 52-run win over Namibia earlier in the day.

New Zealand’s Jimmy Neesham, who made a brisk 35 on Friday as he and Glenn Phillips plundered 67 runs off the last four overs against Namibia, brushed aside talk of India’s focus on their final group match.

“We are pretty good as a unit at sort of keeping what’s necessary to concentrate on in the front of our minds,” said Neesham after being named man-of-the-match for his allround show in Sharjah.

“There’s been a few occasions I know the last couple of months where there’s been a lot of people talking a lot about us off the field so it doesn’t bother us too much.”

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2021