Sourav Ganguly, the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has finally opened up on India’s performance in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup. Ganguly claimed that Virat Kohli’s team did not perform to their full ability, describing India’s performance at the T20 World Cup as the “poorest” he had seen in the last 4-5 years.
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.
Ganguly, while speaking to Boria Majumdar on RevSportz, felt that the team didn’t play with enough freedom at the World Cup. The BCCI President further added that he cannot pinpoint the exact reason for India’s poor performance in the World Cup, but said that it could be the execution that went wrong. The former India skipper backed the side to do well in the upcoming ICC events.
“To be honest, 2017 and 2019 I think India were good. In the 2017 Champions trophy, we lost in the final to Pakistan at the Oval. I was a commentator then. In the 2019 World Cup, we were exceptional right throughout and beat everyone. But we lost to New Zealand in the semi-final, one bad day, and the entire good work for two months was just wiped away. I was a little disappointed with the way we played this World Cup. I think this has been the poorest of what I have seen in the last 4-5 years,” Ganguly said in the interview.
“I don’t know what’s the reason but I just felt they didn’t play with enough freedom in this World Cup. Sometimes it happens in the big tournaments, you just get stuck and when I saw them play against Pakistan and New Zealand, I just felt that this was a team that is playing to 15 percent of its ability. You just can’t put a finger and say this is the reason why it happened. Hopefully, they will learn from it,” Ganguly added.
India had entered the T20 World Cup as favourites to win the title. However, two consecutive losses at the hands of New Zealand and Pakistan immediately put the side in trouble with almost no chance of qualification. But India bounced back stronger to win their remaining games in the group stage. India needed New Zealand to lose a game but the Blackcaps maintained their winning streak to beat the Men in Blue to the qualification race.
