To be brutally honest, India haven’t looked like contenders. They’ve looked flat, out of their depth and woefully out of form. They look like a team that would be anywhere but here. They’ve turned up physically but mentally, they are somewhere else.

The big defeat against Pakistan, in the first game of the T20 World Cup, was an indicator of what might follow and the crushing loss against New Zealand highlighted the mental travails that aren’t as easy to banish.

When asked to explain what went wrong against the Kiwis, India skipper Virat Kohli was at a loss for words.

“Quite bizarre. To be very honest and brutal up front, I don’t think we were brave enough with bat or ball,” said Kohli. “Obviously, with the ball, we did not have much to play with, but we were just not brave enough in our body language when we entered the field.

He added: “New Zealand had better intensity and body language and created pressure on us from the first over and continued that through the innings. Every time we felt like we wanted to take a chance, we lost a wicket.”

Kohli’s team may not be out of contention despite two losses in two games, but they will now have to hope for other results to go their way while they themselves win the remaining games and that is never a good place to be in.

The net run-rate, too, is a cause of worry for India. After the loss against New Zealand, it is at a negative 1.609.

For India, at this point, there is no positive to take from this tournament. Not a single one. The batters have struggled — they have collectively averaged 18.64 after two matches. The bowlers have struggled too — they have collectively averaged 131.50. Not enough runs scored, not enough wickets taken and not even enough intent shown.

According to CricViz data, no team has a lower attacking shot percentage than India in the World Cup and only Ireland, Papua New Guinea and the Netherlands have a worse Timing Rating (a measure of quality of shot contact).

And this shouldn’t be happening to a team that had all of its players playing in the IPL in the same conditions. If anything, they should have adjusted to the conditions better than all the other teams. Perhaps, the players would have too — if only the selectors had picked the form players.

With the exception of KL Rahul, the rest of the batting line-up struggled in phase II of the IPL. Rohit Sharma has looked off after England, Kohli’s struggles in the middle overs were clear to all those who chose to see, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar had one good knock each, Rishabh Pant was off-color too and an unfit Hardik Pandya seemed to ride into the team on reputation.

All of this meant that New Zealand knew that if they could get early wickets and put the pressure on India, Kohli’s side would crumble and that is exactly what happened. A batter in form backs himself to take on the best bowlers but India have inspired no confidence. It is a sad commentary for a team that seemingly harboured ambitions of winning it all.

The Indian team have been on the road for a long time and they have had no break either. Now, this isn’t an excuse. Rather, it shows how poorly India prepared for the World Cup. They needed the players to be fresh and raring to go. Instead, they have looked jaded.

A rotation policy would have helped. A break would have helped. But the BCCI and even the players chose to prioritise the IPL over the World Cup. Kohli will tell you this team doesn’t take anything for granted but perhaps they just took themselves for granted. You can’t just show up and win. Not at a World Cup.

“Sometimes you need a break,” said Bumrah after the match against New Zealand. “You miss your family sometimes. You’ve been on the road for six months. So all of that sometimes play on the back of your mind. But when you’re on the field, you don’t think of all those things. You don’t control a lot of things, how the scheduling goes on or what tournament is played when.

Bumrah added: “So obviously staying in a bubble and staying away from your family for such a long period of time does play a role on the player’s mind as well. But they also tried their best to make us feel comfortable. But this is the time which we’re living in right now. It’s a difficult time. There’s a pandemic going on. So we try to adapt. But sometimes bubble fatigue, mental fatigue also creeps in, that you’re doing the same thing again and again and again.”

India are yet to play Afghanistan, Scotland and Nambia and Kohli will be hoping for better performances and results against them. But given how the team are playing… who knows. They’ll hope to catch a break or they’ll be returning home early and it won’t be to the kindest reception.