Former Indian batter Kapil Dev who helped India to lift their first ever World Cup in 1983 admitted that India can be branded as “Chokers” for their repeated failures in the key matches of mega-events.
Kapil Dev on India’s Failure in Semi Final
Earlier former Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar feels that a few senior Indian players might announce their retirement following India’s 10-wicket loss against England in ICC T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final.
While Kapil admitted that there isn’t much wrong in putting the ‘chokers’ label on the Indian team, he also said that this is not the time to be too harsh as these are the same players who have brought laurels to the country with their performances over the years.
“Yes, we can call them chokers. That’s okay. They come close and then choke.”, Kapil told in a show on ABP News.
He also urged people to not come down too heavily on the Indian team after this defeat.
“But don’t be too harsh. I agree, India played bad cricket, but we cannot be overly critical based on just one game,” he said.
Speaking of India’s defeat to England, Kapil said that England, on the day, assessed the conditions better and outplayed the Indian team.
A number of Indian players underperformed in the T20 World Cup. The likes of KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Axar Patel, all struggled to play up to their potential as India were eliminated from the tournament in the semi-final stage once again.
Winning the toss England choose to field first where Indian openers failed to lay the expected foundation where India loses their first wicket for 9 runs.
Soon after KL Rahul’s dismissal, Rohit too lost his wicket for 27 runs while the much-expected Suryakumar Yadav scored just 14 runs and returned to Pavillion. Post the top order failure, Hardik and Virat Kohli joined hands and scored a 61 runs partnership which leads India to score 168 runs at the end of the 20 overs.
After the loss, India skipper Rohit Sharma pointed out the reasons behind the loss. On the other hand, England scored the target without losing a wicket where Jos Buttler scored 80 runs while Alex Hales scored 86 runs.
Hardik Pandya scored 128 runs at a strike rate of 131.95 and bagged 8 wickets in this tournament.
Post the World Cup defeat India will tour New Zealand where they will play 3 T20I matches and as many as ODI matches between November 13 to November 30.
England will now face Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 final on November 13 at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne.
