Sourav Ganguly on India’s Performance in T20 WC 2021: Former Indian skipper and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly finally opened up on India’s performance in T20 World Cup 2021 where Virat Kohli led India exists the tournament earlier without even entering the qualifier round.
Ganguly on India’s Performance in T20 WC 2021
Ganguly claims that India’s performance in T20 WC 2021 as the “poorest” that he has seen “in last four-five years”
Comparing to India’s performance in the 2017 Champions Trophy, where India had lost to Pakistan in the final, and the 2019 ODI World Cup, where India lost to New Zealand in the semis, during the show ‘Backstage with Boria’, Ganguly admitted that he was left disappointed with the team’s performance in the UAE.
“To be honest, 2017 [and] 2019, I think India was good. 2017 Champions Trophy we lost the final to Pakistan at the Oval, I was a commentator then. Then the 2019 World Cup in England, we were exceptional right throughout, beat everyone and lost to New Zealand in the semi-final — one bad day and the entire good work for two months was just wiped away,” he said in a conversation with Boria Majumdar on his show “Backstage with Boria.”
“[I am] a little disappointed with the way we played this World Cup. I think this has been the poorest of all what I have seen in the last four-five years,” added the former Indian captain.
The former India skipper said that Kohli’s team just “didn’t play with enough freedom” and that’s what led to their downfall. Reflecting on the two defeats against Pakistan and New Zealand that led to their exit, the ‘Prince of Kolkata’ said the players couldn’t control the jitters and didn’t play to their full potential.
“I don’t know what’s the reason but I just felt they did not play with enough freedom this World Cup. Sometimes it happens in big tournaments, you just get stuck and when I saw them playing against Pakistan and New Zealand – I just felt this was the team which was playing to 15% of its ability. And sometimes you can’t just a finger on it that this is the reason why it happened,” he added.
Under Kohli’s captaincy, India failed to qualify for the semi-final of the marquee event following two back-to-back losses to Pakistan and New Zealand in the group stage.
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