Zaheer Khan and Michael Vaughan explain how teams can negate the unfair toss advantage in India

Former internationals Zaheer Khan and Michael Vaughan have revealed how teams batting first in T20Is in India can negate the unfair advantage that teams can get by winning the toss.

Since January 2019, India has played 15 completed T20Is at home. 12 of these games have been won by teams batting second, while only 3 were clinched by the target-setters. More interestingly, in 14 of these games, the team that won the toss decided to bowl first.

This pattern has continued in the ongoing India-England series where all the 3 matches till now have been won by the chasing side. With a T20 World Cup set to be played in India later this year, there is certainly a need for teams to find a way to win games irrespective of how the coin spins.

Talking to Cricbuzz, Zaheer Khan weighed in on the same, hinting that early starts for day/night games can prevent dew from playing much of a role in the second innings. Zaheer Khan added that teams also have to figure out a formula to win games after batting first.

"It's been an early start now [India-England series]. Earlier the matches used to start at 8 pm, now they are starting at 7. So that's one way of negating the dew factor. Dew factor used to be huge in terms of undue advantage to the team winning the toss. But today [3rd T20I] I don't feel that was the case. Infact, the ball was turning more in the 2nd innings than in the first innings," said Zaheer Khan.

Zaheer Khan added in this regard:

"The team batting first need to figure out a way of getting to that total. Yes, when the conditions ar dry and the wicket is two paced, it makes it difficult. But you still need to figure out a formula. Because if you are talking about the World Cup, in a tough game if you are batting first, you can't find an easy excusing saying 'we lost the toss that's why we lost the game'. That effort needs to be made and once you figure that out things get easier."

Zaheer Khan further argued that there's also a psychological barrier in teams regarding chasing totals in T20I cricket where teams avoid the effort of batting first in important games.

"In early years, people used to talk about Test cricket being difficult and it just becomes a psyche. I think that can be the case in this scenario as well. Lot of teams prefer bowling first because they know how to go about chasing. In the first innings, you have too much work to do. You have to first assess the conditions, figure out the par total and then look to take on the game. And that at times becomes tricky. But it's about someone figuring it out and start changing things," said Zaheer Khan.

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Michael Vaughan adds to Zaheer Khan's arguments

Michael Vaughan

Adding to Zaheer Khan's arguments, Michael Vaughan suggested the sides batting first need to be braver and go hard with the bat to reach above-par first-innings totals.

"It's clearly an advantage to bat second but it is what it is. You can't change it and certainly you can't create a World Cup without tosses. So teams around the world have to make sure they get into the game with the bat in hand. You will have to get on even harder, you will have to be more brave, you'll have to try and get beyond that par score. You have to get 190. It could be that you go harder and you end up getting bowled out for 120. You are going to lose anyway so you as well go for it and try and get the big scores to put the teams under pressure," said Michael Vaughan.

After winning the toss, Eoin Morgan has put Virat Kohli's men to bat first again in the 4th T20I in Ahmedabad. It will be interesting to see how the Indian batsmen go about things in the do-or-die clash.