IND vs AUS 2022: "The hopes of winning the World Cup are a bit less" - Aakash Chopra after Team India's loss

India v Australia - T20 International Series: Game 1
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0/52) faced a lot of heat for his bowling performance. (P.C.:Getty)

Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra feels that Team India's chances of winning the T20 World Cup this year look bleak after their consistently poor bowling performances of late.

The Men in Blue failed to defend for the third time in four T20Is, this time conceding a mammoth target of 209 with four balls to spare against Australia in Mohali on Tuesday.

In a video on his YouTube channel after the game, Aakash Chopra spoke in particular about Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal's bowling and how helpless they looked despite being so experienced. He said:

"Yuzi Chahal continues to bowl faster. How will you get wickets if you don't bowl slower at all? The reality is that India have a weak bowling line-up and the hopes of winning the World Cup are a bit less. You need to win the remaining games or else you will lose the series against a side that is without their four main players."
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Aakash Chopra on Jasprit Bumrah

Team India might be bolstered by the availability of Jasprit Bumrah from their next game. However, Aakash Chopra believes it won't have a substantial effect on the overall bowling performance.

To explain his point further, the 45-year-old cited the example of Mumbai Indians' (MI) weak bowling attack in the IPL 2022 season where Bumrah alone couldn't deliver consistently. He stated:

"One bowler can't come and completely change everything. This is the sad reality. What happened to MI this year when they had just Bumrah? They didn't win much, right? So except a game where you take 5-6 wickets, you won't do a lot of difference with just one bowler."

It remains to be seen if the Men in Blue continue to trust Bhuvneshwar and Harshal Patel at the death, or if they bring in Arshdeep Singh alongside Jasprit Bumrah when the full-strength team is available.

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Edited by Sudeshna Banerjee