Former India spin bowling legend and coach Anil Kumble believes India’s struggles in the 2019 World Cup came not only because of their uncertain number 4 position but also lack of clear planning before the big event.

“We kept talking about the number 4 position leading up to the World Cup. There were lots of changes going up to the World Cup. Even in the World Cup itself, we weren’t sure,” Kumble told CricketNext.
“Yes, there were a couple of occasions where Vijay Shankar got promoted to number 4, but was he the ideal candidate? Then he got injured and KL Rahul batted at number 4. Then unfortunately, Dhawan got injured and then KL got pushed to the opening slot, and again number 4 became a point of discussion,” he added.
Anil Kumble said that India didn’t have a settled team before the tournament and also gave credit to New Zealand for their composed playing the semi-final against India.
“I feel that any World Cup that you’re preparing for, you need to have a set team at least 10-15 match prior. It’s important to identify roles and you need to identify specific individuals for those roles. In case one of them does get injured then you need to have a proper backup. That is something that should’ve been identified leading up to the World Cup. Unfortunately, India hadn’t done that but of course you need to give credit to New Zealand as well,” he told.
“It was those early wickets that really blew India away from that game. That first 30-45 minutes of the opening spell by New Zealand took the game away from India. You can always say it was half an hour, 45 minutes of bad cricket that lost us the World Cup but having said that, the planning leading up to the World Cup maybe could’ve been slightly better,” Kumble shared.
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However, Anil Kumble believes India can break their ICC tournaments jinx at the upcoming T20 World Cup in 2020 and for this, they need to identify a core group.
“I think this team certainly has all the elements to go on and win a World Cup. So, the next World Cup is a T20 World Cup which is another 10 months away from now, India has the team to do that but they need to make sure that they have played together as a group that goes to the World Cup, 10 games or 12 games prior to the World Cup itself,” Kumble expressed.
“I am talking about the next T20 World Cup in Australia. There is an Asia Cup before that then you have Australia, you have Sri Lanka, you have a host of other T20 games, so India needs to identify its core and the 15 players that they need to travel to World Cup with,” he shared.
“So, it’s very important that we need to have learnt some of the lessons that perhaps we should have taken care of or addressed during the 50 over World Cup. That’s something that we need to start doing of we have to go on and win the T20 World Cup,” he said.
Moreover, Kumble added that the level of intensity in a bilateral series and in a world tournament are different and India need to prepare for this as well.
“I don’t think it’s a concern but just being aware of the importance of a world event because every other team if you look at bilateral series Vs the performances of that particular team in a World cup, you know they certainly take their level slightly higher, one notch goes up,” he explained.
“So, you need to be aware that the rest of the players or the rest of the team are also taking the game slightly higher, so you are actually competing at slightly higher level than in a bilateral series in a World Cup. Because it’s a do or die and every game becomes that much more relevant and important. So, India needs to keep that in mind and make sure that they have these specific roles identified much earlier to the World Cup itself,” he concluded.