Mumbai: The last major trophy that India held in its hand is the 2013 Champions Trophy, where it managed to trounce England in their home at Edgbaston. Since then it has been a series of disappointing defeats for Team India when it mattered the most.
Here is how India managed to fare in major tournaments since 2013.
- In the 2014 World T20, India managed to reach the finals where they were defeated by Sri Lanka.
- In the 2015 ODI World Cup, India lost to Australia in the semi-final.
- In the 2016 World T20, India reached the semi-finals and were ousted by West Indies, who went on to lift the cup that year.
- In the 2017 Champions Trophy, India faced heartbreak after losing out to Pakistan in the finals.
- In the recently concluded 2019 ODI World Cup, India lost out to New Zealand in the semi-final.
India were considered favourites in all the tournaments that they played after 2013 and they even lived up to the tag that they were fitted with, to some extent. They performed splendidly throughout the tournament but when the final stage came, they couldn’t manage the pressure and succumbed to it.
What are the possible reasons behind this lack of trophies? Let’s take a look at few of them.
1. India’s top order is a spot that has never been a problem for the team. That is due to an able replacement that crops up every time someone retires. But this boon often has proved to be the bane of Indian cricket because of over-dependency on the top order. They can’t perform every time. So naturally, when the time comes that none of the top orders have performed in a match, the entire Indian team starts to collapse. The middle-order has always posed a threat to Indian Cricket, but there has been no solution yet. There have been many changes and experiments done but no satisfactory result has come out of it.
2. The selectors rotate the squad far too much. As the popular saying goes – ‘A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss’, if the players don’t get much time with the squad then how are they supposed to develop? Over the years we have seen the Indian team with many changes and trying out many possibilities. But what this does is tamper with the foundation of the team. Also, if the players are dropped now and then, their morale would be affected. When a selector has made a choice then they should back them too. But instead, if a player doesn’t perform in a single series then he is replaced with someone else pretty soon. This ensures that not a single player gets enough exposure.
3. MS Dhoni has taken Indian cricket to new heights, but one thing that he didn’t do right was dropping senior players from the squad. Dropping Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag from the squad was a move that did not go well with many people, as these legends had a more in their tanks. Even Gautam Gambhir was a victim of this decision by Dhoni. The step taken to drop Gambhir was probably the biggest mistake of Dhoni’s cricketing career as he was in the form of his life and could have given a lot more to the team. The reason given by MS to drop these three players was their fielding.
The selection of Vijay Shankar over Ambati Rayudu for the 2019 ODI World Cup was also a controversial one as Shankar hadn’t shown much promise in his earlier performances and Rayudu was an experienced head who had shown flashes of brilliance when he had performed for Team India previously.
Hopefully, the Indian Board takes heed of these problems and works upon them.
The Indian team is currently on a tour of the West Indies which consists of a three-match T20I series, a three-match ODI Series and a two-match test series. India has already managed to whitewash the Windies in the T20I series while the first match of the ODI series was washed out after just 13 overs being bowled.
