Can India shed their T20 conservatism?

Three-and-a-half years ago, India met West Indies in a World T20 semi-final at Wankhede Stadium. It was less a cricket match than a clash of philosophies.

Sent in, India made 192 for 2 in their 20 overs. They only faced 29 dot balls, and hit 17 fours and four sixes. West Indies won by seven wickets, sweeping past their target with two balls to spare. They faced 50 dot balls, but hit 20 fours and 11 sixes.

That's 146 runs in boundaries, to India's 92.

The players most illustrative of their respective teams' philosophies were the opening batsmen, born six months apart on opposite sides of the globe.

Ajinkya Rahane made 40 off 35 balls, hitting two fours and no sixes, and contributed to half-century stands for the first two wickets. In excellent batting conditions, with his partners scoring freely, Rahane looked to rotate the strike, anchor India's innings, and help set a platform before the slog overs.

West Indies lost two wickets inside the first three overs of their chase, but Johnson Charles didn't look to "consolidate" or "rebuild". He kept clearing his front leg and heaving the ball into the on side. He made 52 off 36 balls, hitting seven fours and two sixes.

It was batting versus hitting, and on that day - as on most days in T20s - hitting won.

India's approach, seemingly adapted from ODI cricket, had helped them scrap their way into the semi-finals, just about, with Virat Kohli's form making up for an otherwise misfiring top five, and Bangladesh handing them a lifeline with a final-over meltdown in Bengaluru. Most of India's group games, moreover, took place on tricky batting pitches.

Their safety-first approach wasn't going to serve them quite as well at the Wankhede, with its flat pitch and small boundaries. Not against West Indies, who were playing T20 with minimal carry-over from the longer formats. They only had two specialist bowlers, a multitude of allrounders who could hit big sixes, and, consequently, the kind of depth that freed up their batsmen to play their shots without worrying about getting out.

A team's strategy is dictated by the resources available to them, of course, and if India were taking an ODI approach into this T20 World Cup, it could be argued that West Indies did exactly the opposite in the 50-over World Cup last month.

The fact is that India, in 2016, had neither the quantity nor quality of hitters West Indies could call upon. Their squad was a weird mix of the old - Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ashish Nehra - and the new - Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah had only just made their India debuts - and there was still room in it for Rahane, who came into the XI for the semi-finals at the expense of an out-of-form Shikhar Dhawan.

Three-and-a-half years on, on the eve of another set of T20Is against West Indies, India's squad has a fresher, more youthful look to it, with a bigger sprinkling of six-hitters. With MS Dhoni out of the picture for the moment, and Dinesh Karthik - perhaps unluckily, given his recent T20I record - left out, there's a sense that this could be the time for the next generation of middle-order batsmen to leave their imprint on how the side bats. This generation is perhaps the first one from India - 11 years after the birth of the IPL - that is more attuned to T20 than ODIs.

KL Rahul has smoked two T20I hundreds - one of which came in Lauderhill - and boasts spectacular numbers in the format - an average of nearly 44, a strike rate of nearly 150. Unless he's promoted to open, he will probably slot in at No. 4, and along with Rishabh Pant and the Pandya brothers - of whom Hardik has been rested for the West Indies tour - form a more explosive middle order than the one India had in 2016.

With Ravindra Jadeja most likely filling the bowling allrounder's slot, India shouldn't lack too much for depth, either. All this should, in theory, free up the top three to bat more expansively.

Lauderhill will give us a glimpse as to how well these parts will fit together, against a West Indies T20I squad that is close to full strength for the first time in a long time. This could be the beginning of a journey that might just culminate next November - at the SCG, the Adelaide Oval, or perhaps even the MCG.