T20 WC failure can’t trump feats in Australia, England

Rohit Mahajan

Ian Chappell, the highly-respected pundit, believes that T20 cricket is like lottery — any team can strike it rich if a couple of players have a sensational day. Before the T20 World Cup started, Sunil Gavaskar declared that India were the “team to beat”, yet he made no predictions, citing the volatility of the format: “The T20 format is the hardest format to predict as the game can turn on its head in an over or twohellip; So, no predictions.”

The unexpected happened and India failed to make the semifinals, and players such as Gavaskar and Kapil Dev should be reiterating exactly what they really believe — that it’s the most unpredictable format and upsets should not surprise or dismay anyone too much.

Kapil, however, seems to be pointing the finger at the players, saying they prioritise the IPL over playing for India. It’s curious he believes this as no Indian player missed an India match to play in the IPL — because the Indian board (BCCI) does not schedule an India series during the IPL! Kapil should know this.

Does Kapil think the players were fatigued due to playing in the IPL? But it’s the BCCI whose scheduling left very little gap between the end of the IPL and the start of the T20 World Cup — the IPL ended on October 15 and the Indian team played its first warm-up match of the T20 World Cup on October 18.

If Kapil is actually looking for someone to blame for the players being fatigued before the World Cup started, surely he has only the BCCI to target. But it’s very, very difficult for a former player to criticise the BCCI — even for a legend such as Kapil. The implications of such an act are almost always severe and financially detrimental.

India, winners of the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, have not had a stellar record in the tournament since then — they failed to reach the semifinals in the next three editions, then reached the final in 2014 and the semifinals in 2016.

Not making the semifinals should not hurt fans or past players so much — it’s happened often enough in the past, after all, and this is the most fickle of cricket’s three formats. Perhaps it’s the first-ever defeat to Pakistan in an ICC World Cup that makes men such as Kapil lose perspective.

Farewell to Shastri

The negativity has obscured the fact that under Shastri and Kohli (and Ajinkya Rahane), India have done very well this year in Test cricket, the format that cricketers themselves respect most. India won the 2020-21 Test series in Australia under the guidance of Shastri and Rahane after Kohli had returned to India for the birth of his first child. No other Asian team has won a Test series in Australia, so difficult are the conditions — and India have done it twice in a row. This can arguably be termed the greatest feat by India in Test cricket.

And before the Test series against England was disrupted by Covid right before the IPL, resulting in the fifth match being postponed to 2022, India led 2-1.

This record in Australia and England in one year is unmatched in Indian cricket’s history. This team may not quite be, as Shastri claims, ‘one of the great teams in the history of the game’, but it is a very good outfit. Shastri can leave with his head held high.

Shastri boosted by Test series wins in Australia

Ravi Shastri’s record since taking over in 2017 is good, mainly due to two Test series wins in Australia and 2-1 lead in ongoing series vs England. A comparison with other coaches since 2000: