New Zealand vs India 2019: 4 reasons why India lost the first T20I

A confident-looking Indian team walked into the T20I series after winning the ODI series quite comfortably. The Kiwis, on the other hand, were looking to restore the pride of being the home team.

India's stand-in captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first. India stepped in with two fast bowling all-rounders - Hardik Pandya and Vijay Shankar. The New Zealand openers gave them a flying start after being asked to bat first. The home team reached 50 runs inside the fifth over itself.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert smashed a 43 ball-84, which included six 6s. Cameos from Munro and Kane Williamson helped them go past 200 runs, ending the innings at 219/6 in their allotted 20 overs.

All the Indian bowlers fell on the expensive side. Chasing a daunting target, India kept losing the wickets at regular intervals. Dhawan and Shankar got a decent start but could not convert them into a big score. In the end, India failed to chase 219 runs, thus continuing India's record of not winning a T20I in New Zealand.

Let's see the 4 reasons why India could not win the first T20I:

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#1 Amazing start by Kiwi openers

Tim Seifert

T20I cricket is all about momentum. Seifert opened the innings with Munro in the absence of Martin Guptill. It turned out to be a blockbuster pair for the home side as they gave the exact start which was required.

They reached 54 runs in five overs and smashed both the opening bowlers across the park. India's front line bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar also could not control the opening burst of the Kiwi openers. Seifert went on to score his maiden T20I fifty. The pair added 86 runs for the first wicket in just 8.1 overs. Kane Williamson carried on the momentum with a quickfire 34 runs.

#2 India's team selection and fielding

Dinesh Karthik

India picked three all-rounders for the game -- two seaming all-rounders and one spinning all-rounder. Also, they did not utilize Vijay Shankar as a bowler. India could have opted for Kuldeep Yadav instead of one of these all-rounders.

It would have helped the Indian captain to exploit Kiwi batsmen's weakness against wrist spinners. Since India went with too many batsmen, they looked like more than one bowler short today and their frontline bowlers didn't help either.

India's fielding was also below par. They took two good catches while Dinesh Karthik dropped two easy ones. In a shorter format, dropping catches is like a crime. If he had converted those two chances into catches, it would've added the pressure on the upcoming batsmen and India could have strangled the Kiwi batsmen in the middle overs.

Let's hope Team India gets its right combination in the next game.

#3 Expensive Indian bowlers

Hardik Pandya

Indian bowlers had a rare off day. None of them looked deadly enough and could not even contain the batsmen. All the Indian bowlers conceded above 35 runs, making it only the second time all the five Indian bowlers conceded over 35 runs in T20I history.

India had other options in the likes of Vijay Shankar, but Rohit didn't use him as well as he could've. Hardik Pandya was the most expensive bowler, conceding 51 runs in four overs with two wickets.

Frontline seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded 47 runs in four overs, which was the maximum run conceded by him in his T20I career. Khaleel Ahmed continued to be expensive, conceding 48 runs in four overs. India clearly missed the services of Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav. But credit should be given to New Zealand batsmen for taking on Indian bowlers early in the innings, which pushed India on the backfoot in the beginning itself.

#4 Top order failure for India

Rishabh Pant

India relies too much the on top order batting when it comes to limited-overs cricket, which was clearly evident today. The chase master Kohli was not playing, and Rohit Sharma got out very early.

Shikhar Dhawan looked in good touch for a few overs but got out before the power play. India sent Vijay Shankar at number three, who looked really good too but again threw away the wicket.

Once India lost its top order, it was too much to ask from the fragile Indian middle order and they were out of the game even before the 15th over. Dhoni played his part well with 39 runs in 31 balls but it wasn't good enough to chase down the huge total. He was running out of partners as most of the middle order batsmen got out for single-digit scores. In the end, India lost by 80 runs, which is their worst ever T20I defeat in terms of runs.