The veteran Indian seamer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar said it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for India’s inability to win an ICC trophy since 2013. However, he acknowledged that the men in blue have lost crucial knockout matches due to ‘unfortunate events or incident’.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar played under MS Dhoni when the Indian team won the Champions Trophy in 2013 which was also the last time India won an ICC trophy. While they had won 3 ICC titles, including the 2011 World Cup, between 2007 and 2013, the world title has eluded India in the recent past.
Under the leadership of Dhoni, India lost the World Cup 2015 semi-final to Australia. Virat Kohli and his men suffered a 180-run loss in the final of 2017 Champions Trophy while they were ousted in the semi-final from last year’s World Cup after a painful defeat to New Zealand. In 2014 and 2016 T20 World Cups, India reached the final stages only to crash out without the elusive title.
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Talking about India’s failures in recent ICC events during the latest episode on Cricket Baazi on ESPNCricinfo, Bhuvneshwar said, “The last we won was the Champions Trophy in 2013. And since then, there have been only 3-4 ICC tournaments and we have made it to the semis or the finals about 2-3 times. In the 2015 World Cup, we lost to Australia in the semi-final. And in the 2019 World Cup, it was bad luck. An early loss of three top-order batsmen cost us the game.”
He further elaborated, “In that entire World Cup, Rohit Sharma had scored five or six centuries, K.L. Rahul was in good form, Virat Kohli played as always and we had MS Dhoni as well in the team. Even in the 2017 Champions Trophy final, things changed after Jasprit Bumrah’s no-ball. We’ve always lost due to an unfortunate event or incident. And it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for the loss.”
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Both captain Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri have pointed their fingers at “45 minutes of bad play” for their exit from the 2019 World Cup. India lost only one match in the group stages and they were leading the charts in league stage but failed in the semi-final against New Zealand when chasing a par total of 240.
Speaking to India Today last year, Ravi Shastri said India will chase the World Cup title and that it’s a ‘bloody obsession’ for him.
