The Indian cricket team, which many touted as favourites to win the tournament, suffered a major blow in their opening encounter, losing to their biggest rivals Pakistan for the first time in the history of the T20 World Cup.

More than the defeat, it’s the manner in which the Virat Kohli-led side lost the match that has disappointed the fans the most. 

Pakistan’s terrific bowling meant that Team India couldn't post a challenging total on the board.

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Barring skipper Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant, who scored 57 and 39 respectively, no other batter could make any significant contribution in the match. 

If the batting performance was disappointing, India’s famed bowling attack didn’t do justice to its reputation either as they failed to pick up any wickets and India ended up suffering their first-ever 10-wicket loss in the shortest format.

Tough day for #TeamIndia at the office, but we will bounce back in our next game.#T20WorldCup #INDvPAK pic.twitter.com/mYwYXVN6xc

This defeat has led to several questions.  

Whether Kohli picked the right Playing XI for the blockbuster game or if he made a mistake by showing too much confidence in one-dimensional Hardik Pandya’s match-finishing skills. 

However, for former India player Ajay Jadeja both these things weren’t a big issue but it was something else that made him worried.  

More than their performance, it was players’ mentality, including that of skipper Kohli, which made the former all-rounder “disappointed”. 

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“I heard Virat Kohli's statement that day. He said 'when we lost two wickets, we fell behind in the match against Pakistan'. I was disappointed with that,” Jadeja said on Cricbuzz Hindi Live. 

“When a player like Virat Kohli is out there in the middle, there is no way the match has ended. He had not played even two balls and was thinking like that. So, it shows India's approach,” he further added. 

No doubt, losing Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, two in-form batters early, did peg India on the backfoot but there were still some quality batters left in the tank, including the skipper himself and him saying that the team fell behind in the match by losing a couple of wickets upfront indicated that he didn’t have much confidence in the other batters’ abilities. 

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What it also does is that it gives the opposition an indication that by getting rid of India’s top-two or top-three batters cheaply, they can create a panic button in the Indian dressing room. 

With India losing their opening match and Pakistan winning both their matches against the two strongest sides in the group, Kohli and his men find themselves in a virtual do-or-die encounter against New Zealand on Sunday. 

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There are many questions that need to be answered ahead of the next game but the most important change that they need to make is to bring in a winning mentality. 

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