The brand of cricket India have gone on to play in the recent times as seen in the 2021 T20 world cup is soulless, lacks vigor and hasn’t led to any success. This is when, regardless of whether it is being held in the UAE, India are hosting the rest of the ICC teams for the world cup.
Never before have India, in the recent times, fielded such a strong playing eleven and never before have they demonstrated such purposeless and tawdry brand of cricket.
In the game against Pakistan, they appeared a confused lot. In the game against the Kiwis, they appeared with their backs broken, the batting along with the bowling lacked bite and was found bereft of any real purpose.
All of these have led to a series of misery-inducing defeats that haven’t done the team any good besides leaving the fans hugely upset- and understandably so.
So what are some of the most receptive minds in the game saying about Team India at the moment and what insights do they offer where it comes to making some sense of what’s happening to India.
Here’s what the great legend of the game Wasim Akram, a fearsome and much-accomplished fast bowler had to say about India’s woes and what may have led them to being where they are at the moment:
“India last played a limited-overs series with all the senior players in March. Now we are in November. So that shows they are not taking those international series seriously. They think playing the IPL is enough. You play as much league cricket in the world that you want. While playing league cricket, you will find one or two good bowlers in the opposition. In international cricket, you will face all five good bowlers,” shared Wasim Akram, the man famously described as the Sultan of Swing.
But he’d also draw further attention to the team’s lapses of concentration and not playing strongly in the recently-concluded contest against New Zealand, by sharing the following, “It wasn’t a great game. It was a one-sided game. India committed a lot of mistakes. When they lost the toss, I feel they were pushed back a little psychologically. The biggest mess-up was downgraded Rohit Sharma to 3 in a crucial, do-or-die game. The guy has got four centuries in T20Is as opener. They could have made Ishan Kishan bat at 3 too. This was the start when the panic button was pressed.”
All the above told, who would really blame a legend of the sport like Mr. Wasim Akram? There are perhaps two easy conclusions to be drawn from this statement. First is that it’s Wasim Akram speaking on a cricket team he’s played against, a country he was once a fierce rival of, and a unit of talents he has, time and again, held in fine regard.
And the other, that Wasim Akram is just biased and jealous of Pakistan’s neighbours on the other side of the border. The latter, truth be known, is half true; since the cricket India have gone on to play, at best, is mediocre cricket. So there’s nothing envy inspiring anyways given what the team has gone on to display in the recent past.