India hasn’t lost any match in this tournament so far; has won all its ten matches so far. After defeating New Zeeland the team made its way to the final that would happen on November the 19th.
But having said that, is everything fine with Indian cricket team?
Remember this is the team that has lost every knockout match in ICC tournaments since 2014.
Also read: Unpredictable Cricket
What are the chances India will end up reliving the same fate?
Higher than a lot of people might be thinking!
Why?
Cricket is a team sport and not a sport of a few individuals
Indians are still not over their stars fetish. Its not only the fans, but the cricket analysts, commentators, sports management even selectors and other authorities who succumb to this stars fetish.
Indian Cricket fraternity took several decades to realize that India will need quality wicket tacking bowlers as well and can not win major tournaments just with their star batting lineup. “We have seen the Sunil Gavaskar era, the Sachin Tendulkar era and now the Virat Kohli era“. Any similar statement for bowlers? Wicket Keepers?
Exactly twenty years ago in 2003, India saw Australia in the world cup final in Johannesburg, South Africa. We had star studded batting line up, what happened then? India was hammered!
In 2003 it was the little master, the god of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, now it is the King, Virat Kohli. I would not believe you if you were to say that you haven’t seen Indians worshipping them. #WeforVirat a show by Star Sports is the latest example of people eulogizing these stars.
In 2003 it was Virender Sehwag, the bombastic opener demolishing the bowling attack, now it is Hitman Sharma, Rohit Sharma. Have you not seen people, article or tv shows building a narrative proving his role in the win. India scored 397 but according to them won because Rohit scored 47 in 29 balls. I wonder, who scored other 350 runs in 271 balls? And moreover, who bowled NZ all out? It goes for all the other games as well.
Also read: This is why Rohit Sharma is different!
Indians are emotionally attached to the cricketers they like to the extent that they lose the ability to objectively look at cricket. If the team wins, it does not matter what, its always their favorite player who made it happen. Is Ravindra Jadeja a wicket taking bowler? Is he a reliable batsmen? He is a brilliant fielder, better than everyone else, not even an iota of a doubt. But can we let a place in the eleven keep for a brilliant fielder? In 2003 it was Mohammad Kaif, a brilliant fielder but at the same time not at all a reliable batsman.
It is quite straightforward, if only you take emotions, personal biases and prejudices out of the equation. To come out victorious against a world class team like Australia, our playing squad should be better than theirs. If Australia is playing with three world class pacers in the form of Mitchel Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, our three pacers should be comparable. Mohammad Siraz is the weak-link there. India struggled to defend mighty 397 against New Zeeland just because Jasprit Bumrah had a bad day. Had Mohammad Siraz been at the same level, this would have been a one sided match. The bowling attack was left to Mohammad Shami and Kuldeep Yadav. What do you do for the other 30 overs?
South Africa has never won any of the world cups and they continue to fail in knockouts. Why? They have players in their squad that are not there because of their cricket merit, but because of reservation. We can keep holding luck accountable for their defeats, but the simple fact is they lose crucial matches because the other team has better players. A big controversy broke out in 2015 when SA after winning its first ever knockout matches, a quarter final against Sri Lanka, had to change its winning playing XI to incorporate a player of color instead of Kyle Abbot. South Africa lost of New Zeeland in the semi finals.
Also read: The (in)significant fans
In our case, the reason can be politics, corruption, lobbying, PR, marketing, business aspects or any other but the outcome is the same: we have players in our playing XI that simply don’t fit in. Till the time we have truly deserving eleven on the cricket merit and nothing else, we will have ample scenarios where we will lose crucial knockout games; of course there can be a bad day and its all luck.
Perhaps that’s why Australia is different!
There is no denying in the fact that Indian team today is way better and way more competitive than the one in 2003 or even in 2019. As a matter of fact I wrote Everything is not fine with Team India; ICC World Cup 2019 before that world cup pointing out some issues and unfortunately the same happed. Have a look at the article. But we still have a few players in the playing xi that are dispensable. Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Siraj can not be relied on, they might work they might not. I hope 19th is a good day for us and we win lift the cup for the third time. I definitely don’t want Aussies to lift it for the sixth time. Fingers Crossed!!!
Thanks for reading. Please share this article with your friends and let me know what you think by dropping a comment.
Also read:
Infinite Sea of Opportunities 
2 thoughts on “Everything is not fine with team India; ICC cricket world cup 2023”