T20 World Cup 2021 | There should have been some gap between IPL and T20 WC, says Kapil Dev

India have already fallen out of the T20 World Cup 2021 semi-final race, with one match to go in Super 12 - against Namibia on Monday, November 8. Defeats to Pakistan and New Zealand first up had hurt their chances immensely, before they came all guns blazing against Afghanistan and Scotland.

India's leadership group will undergo a change after the tournament, with Virat Kohli’s captaincy tenure to end and Rahuld Dravid replacing Ravi Shastri in the head coach role. 

Reflecting on India's performance at T20 World Cup, Kapil Dev has opined that there should have been some gap between the IPL 2021 and World Cup. He also added that the team should now start planning for the future. 

“It’s time to look at the future. You should start planning right away. It’s not that since the World Cup is over, Indian team’s entire cricket is too. Go and plan. I just feel that there should have been some gap between IPL and the World Cup. But this is certainly there that our player today have a lot of exposure but they could not make the most of it,” he said to ABP News.

The IPL 2021 concluded on October 15, two days before the T20 World Cup 2021 went underway. India played their two warm-up matches on October 18 and 20 respectively, before playing Pakistan in their first Super 12s fixture on October 24. Notably, Jasprit Bumrah had addressed the bio-bubble fatigue factor after the team's defeat to New Zealand.

Kapil asked for the players to prioritise national duty and learn from the mistakes committed at the T20 World Cup.

“When players prioritise IPL over playing for the country, we what can we say," said Kapil. "Players should take pride in playing for their nation. I don’t know their financial conditions so can’t say much. But I feel that first in line should be the country’s team and then franchises. I’m not saying do not play cricket there (for the franchise), but the responsibility is now on the BCCI to plan its cricket better. To not repeat mistakes we committed in this tournament is the biggest learning for us.”