Part 2 - How did India win the 2024 T20 World Cup

Conditions

The 2024 T20 World Cup was notorious for its incredibly difficult conditions for batting. There were factors like:

• Variable bounce: this made it difficult for batsmen because the ball could bounce up normally, really high, or really low, making it hard to predict how the ball should be played properly. Due to this, many batsmen got out playing the wrong shot by miscuing the ball to a fielder

• Slow outfields: despite the boundaries not being too big, the ground’s grass was devastatingly slow, meaning that the ball wouldn’t go across the stadium grass quickly and rather slowed down at a more rapid pace than normal. This resulted in many shots played by batsmen being reduced to merely scoring 1 or 2 runs instead of 4 runs due to the ball not reaching the boundary.

• Slow pitches: when the ball bounces, it naturally loses speed due to the inelastic collision between the pitch and the ball, and therefore, it comes to the batter at a slower pace than the ball's speed at the point of release. However, in slow pitches, the ball “sticks” on the surface more, meaning that more speed is taken out of the ball; therefore, the ball comes slower to the batsman than normal. This results in the batsman having less pace to work with while manufacturing a shot, and also puts the batter at risk of miscuing the ball due to swinging too early at the ball. Factors like this in the pitch creates greater risk of a batsman getting out or making less runs.

Overall, factors like these contributed to the lowest number of runs scored per over (also called economy) in any T20 WC in history (7.09 runs/over). Additionally, the batting average this WC was 19.14 (this means that a wicket fell for every 19.14 runs scored in an inning on average, marking the lowest batting average for teams in any T20 WC). What makes these stats explain why the frequency of top run scorers in a team was so crucial?

In this WC, bowlers were having field days. Bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah were absolutely unstoppable, for example, having the lowest economy rate of 4.17 in T20 WC history and taking 1 wicket every 8.26 runs he gave. In short, Bumrah was absolutely phenomenal, being practically unhittable throughout the tournament. He was arguably one of the X-factors in critical moments throughout the tournament, such as in the final versus South Africa and the league stage match versus Pakistan. However, Bumrah’s extraordinary performance was not much of a surprise. He had been exceptional in the recent Indian Premier League (IPL) season in early 2024, taking 20 wickets at a stunning economy rate of 6.48. This was a season that heavily assisted batsmen, with most bowlers going for heaps of runs each match. Ace bowlers for their national teams like Anrich Nortje were alarmingly expensive, giving 13.36 runs per over this season during the IPL; however, Nortje was lethal in the World Cup, taking 1 wicket for every 13.4 runs given, and had an economy of just 5.74. The stark contrast for such a bowler in such a short space of time is quite clear, showing just how helpful the conditions were for bowlers this World Cup.

With bowlers being utterly dominant this World Cup, the need for batsmen to score was even greater. On many occasions, low-scoring games with bowlers dominating from both sides were decided on which side could read the conditions better and bat according to the situation to get the maximum yield of runs. For example, the match between Nepal and Bangladesh resulted in Bangladesh being bowled out for 106 runs, with Nepal’s bowlers steamrolling the Bangladeshi batting lineup throughout the match. However, Nepal’s batting effort was even more feeble, with the Rhinos collapsing to a humiliating total of 85. Bowlers were almost always on top of the batsmen in matches like this throughout the World Cup. Hence, batsmen needed to fire for a team to get the edge over their opponent and win games. Since India had such a high frequency of high-scoring batsmen this World Cup, this gave them a clear edge over their opponents in the league stages and knockouts, setting them up for an unbeaten run throughout the tournament.