Since the 2013 Champions Trophy win the Indian team has reached 2 finals (World T20 2014, Champions Trophy 2017) and 3 semi-finals (2015 World Cup, 2016 World T20, 2019 World Cup) & 2 finals (World Test Championship) failing to win the corresponding matches. Indian team has been failing big time at the crucial matches in the ICC tournaments, the team looks strong on paper, but somehow the entire team chokes on the big day, it’s not like in the old times when the players stepped in these crucial matches and won ICC tournaments, now it’s all downhill from the last 10 years in the ICC tournaments, today we are going to take a look at the ICC tournaments we have lost from the past 10 years
Here is a summary of India’s heartbreaks at ICC events since the start of 2014:
1. 2014 WORLD T20 – RUNNERS UP
The team reached the finals under Dhoni’s captaincy, but failed to lift the cup, losing to Sri Lanka.
2. 2015 WORLD CUP – SEMIFINALS
This world cup had high hopes as everyone felt this would be Dhoni’s last 50-over world cup as a captain, we reached the semi-finals under Dhoni’s captaincy but failed. Australia completely thrashed us in the semi-final.
3. 2016 WORLD T20 – SEMIFINALS
This would be Dhoni’s last tournament as a captain for a T20 World Cup, but again we stumbled at the semi-finals.
4. 2017 CHAMPIONS TROPHY – RUNNERS UP
We all thought we would easily thrash Pakistan in the finals, we kept joking around about Pakistan’s poor records against India at ICC events. But the joke is on us, Pakistan completely thrashed us in the final, and they won the champions trophy by a large margin. This was Dhoni’s last outing as a captain in the ICC tournament.
If Thala Dhoni can’t marshal his team to lift four ICC trophies straight, failing at the last moment, what hope we have got with the other captains…
5. 2019 WORLD CUP – SEMIFINALS
That runout of Dhoni still haunts many of us. It’s a nightmare and a wound that we will take to our graves. Virat Kohli’s big tournament as a captain, he along with Rohit Sharma delivered with the bat in the tournament but in the crucial match, both of them failed miserably.
6. 2021 WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP – RUNNERS UP
If there is something that India can never beat in the ICC tournaments, then it must be New Zealand, it’s like if New Zealand is the opponent of India in the ICC tournaments, we can be sure that New Zealand will win.
7. 2021 WORLD T20 – GROUP STAGE
A humiliating exit from the group stage itself. This marked the downfall of Virat’s reign as a captain.
8. 2022 WORLD T20 – SEMIFINALS
A humiliating defeat in the hands of England. They kicked us all around the park without losing a wicket and won the match. The big match players of India are nowhere to be found, they all play exceptionally well at the group stage when it’s the big day, they all fail as a team.
This was Rohit’s first ICC tournament as a captain.
9. 2023 WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP – RUNNERS UP
What to say, when the other team is practicing and toiling hard for the past 2 months for the test championship, on the other side, we are playing IPL until a week before the test championship. There is seriously something wrong with the way the whole cricket is going, yes it’s good to have IPL, IPL is the blockbuster, but are we going to sacrifice the seeds which made cricket what it is today? The selection team, the BCCI, the players, and the coaching staff have to get their mindsets and priorities right. The most tragic thing is after a defeat like this, it seems no player is really worried or ashamed over it, they treat this as just a loss, finding excuses, once upon a time, when India loses like this, we could see tears in the players faces, I don’t know where it went wrong, I hope we get back to the seeds of cricket, and win. But if this is the process, I don’t see any wins coming in the ICC tournaments. The process is everything, it’s not the destination, it’s the path. It’s never about winning, it’s the way we lose, that hurts.
So starting in 2014, totally Dhoni as a captain lost four ICC tournaments, Virat, as a captain lost 3 ICC tournaments, and Rohit as a captain lost 2 ICC tournaments.
