Former India cricketer turned commentator Aakash Chopra has shared his views on Team India’s inability to win ICC titles in the last few years. He said that the problem lies elsewhere which is not related to uninspiring captaincy.
Notably, Team India last won an ICC title way back in the 2013 Champions Trophy. Since then, they have played six ICC events, including the World Test Championship (WTC) final recently, they have lost thrice in the finals and as many times in the semi-finals as well.
India men’s team in ICC events since the 2013 Champions Trophy win:
2014 WT20 – Runners-up
2015 ODI WC – Semis
2016 WT20 – Semis
2017 CT – Runners-up
2019 ODI WC – Semis
2019-21 WTC – Runners-up#WTC2021Final #INDvsNZ— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) June 23, 2021
In a recent video posted on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra expressed that the captain cannot be held accountable for their inability to win in ICC events. He also stated that both MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli have led the Indian team in three tournaments apiece. While India couldn’t win the T20 World Cups in 2014 and 2016 and the 2015 ODI World Cup under the leadership of MS Dhoni, he had led the team to three ICC titles before that as well. And, Virat Kohli is likely to lead the team to a T20 World Cup win later this year as well.
Aakash Chopra said: “We have played six ICC events since 2013. Three were in Dhoni’s captaincy. After that, three have been under captain Kohli. So is it about captaincy; it doesn’t tell me that. Don’t look at the captain; just look inwards that the entire team has to deliver to its potential.”
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He also cited: “Rohit, Kohli, Dhoni are your main players in batting. If you see their performances – Rohit’s overall knockout average is 24.9. His career Test average is 46, ODI is 49 and T20I is 32. So his average in the knockouts is much lower than his career average.”
He also shared that Virat Kohli’s average has also dropped in knockout encounters and he also highlighted MS Dhoni’s career graph as well.
While talking about that, he revealed: “The same story is for Kohli. His overall average in knockouts after two good innings is 38.3 while his career average is above 50 in all three formats. In ODI cricket, it is nearly 60, so the average is going down by at least 20 points. Dhoni – his knockout average is also 34. His career average in every format is much better than that.”
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The veteran added the failure of the top players to step up on the important occasion is the main reason behind India’s poor run in the ICC events. However, not only the batting unit, India’s bowling unit also has failed to perform in the WTC Final.
“This is the main story. When it comes to knockout performances, you want your big players to fire. It’s as simple as that. Big players need to come to the party, but they haven’t done that often enough,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
