In less than five weeks’ time, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 will get underway in Australia with the qualifiers for four vacant spots spread across two groups. In exactly a month’s time, India will begin their campaign when the take on Pakistan on October 23 at the sold out Melbourne Cricket Ground.
And the cracks are appearing. In the lead up the T20 World Cup, India have lost three of their last four matches. The defeats have come against defending world champions Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan while the lone victory was over Afghanistan.
Then there’s the fact that India haven’t won an ICC trophy since 2013 and their last major title win came at the Asia Cup in 2018. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly acknowledged that the title drought is a concern but he’s confident the team will improve under the leadership of Rohit Sharma and guidance of Rahul Dravid.
“Rohit Sharma has a winning percentage of almost 80. India has lost last three-four matches but before that… he has led in 35-40 matches and lost just five or six,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
“I am sure Rohit and Rahul Dravid will be concerned about the team and everything, and they will improve. I am not worried about one or two losses, but yes, we have not done well in big tournaments. We will talk about that…The team will leave (T20 WC) two to three weeks, will get time to acclimatise and play practice matches,” he added.