India’s ICC Knockout Curse

For a team that's dominated world cricket for the last decade, the absence of an ICC trophy since 2013 has prevented them from cementing that status

25/06/2021

Ravin Batra

On the 23rd of June 2013, the Indian Cricket Team produced an inspired escape defending 129 in a 20 over shootout in their rain hit Champions Trophy final against England in Edgbaston. The MS Dhoni led side was fresh off a World Cup victory at home two years prior, and although they had lost two big away series against Australia and England, they were able to win both return series’ (at home) and put themselves in a position where they were holding 2 out of the 3 biggest trophies in world cricket. The Champions Trophy victory also marked complete the transition from the Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan days to Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin and a young barrage of fast bowlers playing an aggressive, fitness-first and a positive style of cricket. With Dhoni evidently grooming his deputy (Kohli) for the days ahead, Indian cricket looked to be headed toward even greater things. 8 years to the day of their 2013 victory, however, the Indian team found themselves back on English shores fighting for survival on what was day 6 of the inaugural World Test Championship final. Whilst the now Virat Kohli led team went on to lose that game, it is not the manner of the loss that is of great concern- rather the fact that this is a team that has won 19 from 25 test series, 24 from 33 ODI series and 19 from 20 T20I series since the 2013 Champions trophy but has no ICC trophies to go along with it. Whilst many experts have tipped this team to be the best in the world, India is not winning when it matters the most.

When analysing the reasons behind India’s failures at the knockout stages of ICC tournaments, one has to point towards leadership. MS Dhoni has built a legacy of being the leader with the midas touch. With his ice cold demeanour and pin point decision making, India brought home the 2011 world cup and the 2013 champions trophy. Dhoni also led the team to the number 1 test ranking in 2010 and the commonwealth bank series victory in Australia in 2008-09. Ever since taking over full time in 2017, Virat Kohli has instilled in the team a certain aggression both in demeanour and style of play. This positive style of cricket has seen the team scale new heights- winning test series’ in Australia and dominating all opposition at home. At ICC events however, Kohli’s alpha-male captaincy has seen his team buckle under the pressure and concede important passages of play to their opposition.

Clearly the best player in the team, Kohli’s lead from the front mantra seems to have put added pressure on his teammates to perform, especially when he himself doesn’t do so. This can also be seen with his captaincy at the Royal Challengers Bangalore where apart from in 2016 when Kohli carried the team with a whopping 900 run season, the team has failed to string together consistent performances. Under the pressure Kohli is seen making rash decisions with respect to team selection and batting order- which adds further to the downward performance spiral with insecurity and added pressure leading to poorer results. MS Dhoni, whilst a superstar in his own right, always had the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Kohli himself in his teams to bear the brunt of team performance. In their recent victory over Australia, the team seemed to rally around Ajinkya Rahane in a more cohesive manner than with Kohli- thus begging the question whether the team is better off without an alpha captain in Kohli but rather a more measured, group leader such as Rahane or Rohit Sharma.

One of the main reasons behind India's strong bilateral performances is the consistency of their top order and the continuous wicket-taking ability of the bowlers. Since 2013, Rohit Sharma has averaged over 50 in ODI cricket each year whilst Shikhar Dhawan has only twice dropped below 45. Virat Kohli too has averaged north of 45 in each year (since 2013) barring 2020 and KL Rahul has averaged 45 or above in the last 3 years. New bowling faces such as Jasprit Bumrah, Mohamaed Shami and Bhuvenshwar Kumar have all taken 25+ wickets in world cup or champions trophy years whilst new spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzendra Chahal have matched that for every year since 2017. In ICC knockout stages however, these mainstays of the Indian team have gone cold.

In the 2014 world t20 final, some inexplicably slow batting by 2011 world cup hero Yuvraj Singh at number 4 and a lack of wicket taking ability on a turner in Dhaka cost the Indians the first of many opportunities at another ICC trophy. The following year in Sydney, the Indians faced up against hosts Australia after an unbeaten run to the semi finals- sparred on by some inspired fast bowling. That day however, Steve Smith and Aaron Finch smothered the Indian bowling scoring 335 in their 50 overs and after a start from openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma, the two and Virat Kohli fell in quick succession leaving MS Dhoni with too much to do at the end. The next year in the t20 world cup semi in Mumbai, the top order fired scoring 190 against the West Indies. 3 wickets taken off no balls in the following innings cost the Indians on a flat Wankhede wicket. In the 2017 champions trophy final another no ball came back to haunt them with the top order collapsing trying to chase a mammoth total. In 2019, chasing a more achievable target, the Indians collapsed again.

An easily recognisable trend from these losses is that the Indian team relies too much on its top order to come good and when it doesn’t the middle order does not have that confidence in them to fight it out. Since 2013, India have tried several combinations of Ajinkya Rahane, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu, Shreyas Iyer, Vijay Shankar, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul and multiple others between numbers 4 and 7 in the batting order. With none of these players barring Dhoni being a consistent feature in the side for over 2 years- there is bound to be insecurity and added pressure to perform individually which is not the state of mind the team needs its players to be in following a collapse in a knockout match. With 2 years to go for the 2023 ODI world cup, India needs to pick a middle order, back it to come good and stick with it for the entirety of this period. Similarly with the bowling, whilst the recent test series against Australia has showcased the depth in the attack- picking a core group of bowlers that play big games regularly will help them perform on the even bigger stages and reduce the likelihood of stupid mistakes that have cost them in the past. One of the hallmarks of MS Dhoni’s captaincy was the consistency he had in the playing 11. Whilst some criticised him for giving certain players too long a leash, Kohli’s method of chopping and changing almost every match has come back to bite him when his mainstays are not up to the task.

India’s consistency over the last 8 years has shown to the world that it has the talent, depth and ability to dominate world cricket. Its inability to put such performances up under pressure, however, has started to become a concern of late. The next 2 years sees two t20 world cups, an ODI world cup and another cycle of the world test championship. India will be looking to go deep and actually win at all of these events. Having the hopes of 1.3 billion people resting on one's shoulders is a very daunting task, however, one that with the IPL these players have become accustomed to. Whether it's a change in leadership, mindset, backroom staff or just added consistency- something needs to change in order for India to achieve its goals and cement its status as the best team in the world.