ICC T20 World Cup 2022 semis: India's humiliating knockout sets WhatsApp's joke factory rolling

By Team Newsable | First Published Nov 11, 2022, 1:12 PM IST

ICC T20 World Cup 2022: India was embarrassed by England in the semis in Adelaide on Thursday. It was followed by fans venting out their frustration on respective Whatsapp groups.

Team India's utter rout in the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup initiated a predictable flood of 'Fan Gyan', varying from self-deprecating to team shaming, from comic to foul, lame to coarse, but typically to the point. And where else was it on display but on WhatsApp University, the bottomless pit of unsolicited wisdom. The 10-wicket shellacking by England of Rohit Sharma's side left millions of fans emotionless. But only shortly. Within hours, the joke factory of WhatsApp got into motion, and the memes commenced flowing in.

"Itna one-sided match dekh ke college ka pyaar yaad aa gaya," read one meme, referring to the teenage crushes of boys whose passionate romantic preludes were infrequently returned by the recipient. The most biting, conceivably, was a purported message by England to India: "Final hum khel lete hain. Aap Dream 11 pe team banao. [We will play the final, you prepare the team on Dream 11]," referring to the favoured gaming site.

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The Indian cricket fan is rarely this forgiving and optimistic after such a massive beating of the national team. Perhaps, this time it was different because there was no real anguish of a last-ball defeat, the way Pakistan mourned at the hands of India in the league stage. The match was effectively lost in the PowerPlay when England achieved 63 runs in six overs and latched by the 16th over.

The facile failure made the whole game eminently forgettable and even humorous. Hence the wit on WhatsApp. Even former Indian skipper and top-order batter Virat Kohli, along with all-rounder Hardik Pandya, furnished some decency to the bad score of 168, was not spared. A pictorially morphed meme displayed his wife sitting on her haunches (in a scene from the film Sui Dhaga, where she played a lower middle-class seamstress) next to Kohli lying prone on his belly in full cricket gear: "Kitney aadmi the? [the famous dialogue from Sholay]. Kohli replies [sirf 2]".

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Yes, only two men: Captain Jos Buttler and Alex Hales, the chief demolishers of Indian ambitions with their unbeaten knocks of 80 and 86. And with it, the national anticipations of an India-Pakistan final lay in tatters. "England: Keeping India and Pakistan apart since 1947" was a comment by someone named Melon Husk on Twitter.

"This is not the first time England has separated India and Pakistan," read a parallel meme on WhatsApp. Indeed. The recollections of the 1947 partition, when British colonial rule ended with Pakistan gaining independence on August 14, followed by India on August 15, are not going away anytime soon.

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Harking on that theme, a commentator, apparently from Pakistan, authored: "Hum azaad bhi aik din pehle huway Or Final main b aik din pehlay ponch gae." [We became independent a day before and reached the final a day earlier]. Perhaps in a grudging reaction, an Indian fan retorted right humouredly: "Indian team can go to the final even now to watch it!"

On a more solemn note, an enthusiastic follower of the sport, Jiten Verma, provided a non-professional, yet sharp, study of India's woes: "If you carefully analyze the games, Indian Team [has been giving] a pretty average performance, not counting bilateral series. We got knocked out at the league stage in the last WC, same in Asia Cup, and this time the only convincing wins came against Zim and Ned, lost to SA and Eng and barely got over the line against Pak and Bang with lucky help of some marginal umpiring calls in both games."

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"In ODI WC, we will probably do much better next year, but our T20 team will require a major overhaul to play a more attacking and fearless game brand. Let's see if anything happens," registered Verma. The legendary former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar had equal ideas on Thursday when he said the T20 team requires a makeover. He wished that a few of them won't play the shortest format anymore.

(With inputs from PTI)

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