Former England skipper, Nasser Hussain reckons that Team India doesn’t go with an alternative plan in major ICC tournaments because they have a very strong top-order that rarely fails. Whether it is the ICC World T20 final in 2014 (Yuvraj Singh got stuck at slog overs) or the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy or the 2019 World Cup in England (top-order collapse), India often lost the tournament because of a bad match in which the top-order failed to do much. 

During a chat on Star Sports’ show, Hussain said, “I would say the selection is where India has gone wrong over the ICC tournaments, adapting to conditions a little bit. So it’s not just about having one game plan.”

Nasser Hussain asserted that the consistent performances of the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, and his deputy, Rohit Sharma in most of the white-ball games often leave the middle-order vulnerable whenever the stalwarts fail. 

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Hussain explained, “Adapting to conditions, if it’s nibbling around (ball swinging) and if you are in a World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. It could almost be a fault of Indian cricket that they are too good at the top of the order. When it’s good and flat, okay Kohli hundred, Sharma hundred, hundreds at the top and lads in the middle order don’t get a hit.”

He further elaborated, “India have no answers once they quickly lose three wickets in early overs and suddenly all the guys haven’t had a hit and we are four down and how we are going to get out of it now. So it’s about having a Plan B that will get them across the line, not just having a Plan A.”

While Hussain loves that Kohli’s in-your-face attitude as compared to MS Dhoni being the ‘Ice Man’, still he feels that there are areas of improvement in Virat’s captaincy.  

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Nasser said, “So, he’s his own man, he’s got better at certain things or still certain areas I’d like to see Kohli improve on. Every over, you have to change the field, he is running up changing things, he tinkers a little bit too much. I think India did a lot of things well, I’m not sure selection is one of them.”

In fact, Hussain also expressed the not having permanent number four batsman hurt India the most in the World Cup.