Why Does Team India Fail Consistently?

Bilal Ahsan Dar

In the first Test of the ongoing bilateral series that began on December 14, India inflicted a crushing defeat on home team Bangladesh at Chattogram. While India’s performance at test level has been reasonably satisfactory, the same cannot be said about its performance in the white ball cricket over the last few years.

It was not so long ago that star all-rounder Hardik Pandya claimed: “I think India can pick two more teams and win any tournament in the world.” He was referring to the bench strength that India has built in the recent years.

BCCI is the richest cricket board in the world. The last IPL was worth more than $6bn. Its franchises have already taken the leagues to the UAE and South Africa and are eyeing the Big Bash and the Hundred in Australia and England. BCCI is a member of the big 3 who run the game today. Yet, with that power and wherewithal at its disposal, India hasn’t been able to stamp its authority on the field.

It has been 11 years now when they last won a world cup trophy – the 2011 World Cup. Since then, they lost the 2014 T20I final, 2015 World Cup semifinal, 2016 T20I World Cup semifinal, 2017 Champions Trophy final and 2019 World Cup semifinal. The World Test Championship final in 2021 against New Zealand was no different for India. In 2021 T20I World Cup, India was knocked out in the group stage.

Though, during this period, the Indian team has been among top-five teams across formats. This raises the eyebrows as to why the team hasn’t been able to deliver when it really matters.

This year, the team faced an unceremonious exit from the Asia Cup, followed by semifinal defeat to England in the T20I World Cup. Then an ODI series loss to New Zealand and now another ODI series loss to a lower ranked Bangladesh.

Former England captain Nasser Hussain, while talking about this inconsistency, said: “Indian team doesn’t play fearless cricket. You have got to go out and express yourself. They have got so much of talent.” While this may be one of the factors, which probably stems from the overly high expectations of the fans, a close observation reveals there are multiple factors that could be responsible for inconsistency and flop shows when it comes to big games.