"He could have left Rashid and let Virat Kohli take him on instead" - Suryakumar Yadav's coach Vinayak Mane on the batter's dismissal against England

Suryakumar Yadav's coach Vinayak Mane thinks SKY should have played Adil Rashid cautiously during India’s T20 World Cup semi-final against England in Adelaide last week.

On Thursday (November 10), eventual title winners England thrashed India by 10 wickets at the Adelaide Oval to progress to the final. That shattered the hopes of millions of Indian fans, with an ICC trophy having eluded them for almost a decade now.

England captain Jos Buttler put India into bat first on a surface that had some grass. But the same old story for India in ICC knockout matches repeated itself - the openers failing to rise to the occasion.

India’s most trustworthy batting pair in the T20 World Cup - Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav - joined forces at the end of the nine overs. Suryakumar, who had scored 225 runs at a strike rate of 193.97 ahead of the semi-final, smashed Ben Stokes for four and a six to get off to a cracking start.

But his innings fizzled out as he attempted to play inside out to a Rashid delivery, which turned away outside the off stump. Suryakumar Yadav couldn’t connect with the ball well enough and, as a result, was caught by Phil Salt at the sweeper cover.

Suryakumar's dismissal became a turning point in the Indian innings as they fell some 20 runs short on Adelaide's batting-friendly surface. Hardik Pandya (63 off 33) and Kohli (50 off 40) did, however, ensure that India posted a decent score of 168.

Speaking to Sportskeeda in an exclusive interview, Vinayak Mane, the coach of Suryakumar at Mumbai’s Parsi Gymkhana, said the middle-order batter could have avoided targeting Rashid and instead looked to outsmart the other England bowlers.

“I know it was a big game for Team India and people wanted him to do well. But it's one of those games where you don’t pick and choose right. I feel Rashid being the best spinner, maybe he could have targeted Livingstone or Moeen Ali and the other seamers. The risk factor would have been much lesser, I think Rashid was the best spinner,” Mane told Sportskeeda.

Mane, who played 57 first-class and 33 List-A matches for Mumbai from 2000 to 2009, believes that senior batter Kohli would have been better suited to tackle Rashid's spin threat.

“Had we been chasing 200 then we had to go after Rashid also," Mane said. "They could have deflected him being the best wicket-taker and they could have gone after the next five bowlers. He could have left Rashid and let the other guy (Kohli) do it and focus on the rest of the bowlers.”

England openers Alex Hales (86* off 47) and Buttler (80* off 49) were ruthless in the chase, toying with the experienced Indian bowling attack. For the second time in as many T20 World Cups, India failed to pick up a single wicket while defending a 150+ score.