Why Does the Indian Team Struggle in ICC Knockout Matches?

(Rohit Sharma was disappointed after losing the 2023 ODI World Cup)

Winning a T20 World Cup, an ODI World Cup, and a Champions Trophy within a span of 7 years will always be a special achievement for every cricketing nation. Furthermore, having two great players of a generation in one team will surely make the fans understand that the team will be now ruling in the ICC tournaments. But what has happened with the Indian team in the last 10 years has been completely opposite of what fans thought. With so much calibre, talent, and passion, the Indian team has failed to capitalize at the crucial moments in the match and hence it has been the story of the Indian team that they have always choked under pressure in the last 10 years. But what is the reason behind all this? How can a team choke despite having one of the best lineups?

Reasons why the Indian team has failed to win ICC Tournaments in the last 10 years

After winning the Champions Trophy in 2013, the Indian team was blessed with some young guns who looked ready to take up the Indian team forward now. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and others were groomed well under the captaincy of MS Dhoni who was now the only captain to win all the 3 major ICC Trophies. But after winning this tournament, India failed to win the next 10 ICC tournaments in the 10 years which have been given below

Name of the Tournament	India lost to:	Loss Margin
2014 T20 World Cup	Sri Lanka in the Finals	6 Wickets
2015 ODI World Cup	Australia in the Semi-Finals	95 runs
2016 T20 World Cup	West Indies in the Semi-Finals	7 wickets
2017 Champions Trophy	Pakistan in the Finals	180 runs
2019 ODI World Cup	New Zealand in the Semi-Finals	18 runs
2021 World Test Championship	New Zealand in the Finals	8 wickets
2021 T20 World Cup	Pakistan and New Zealand in the League stage	10 wickets against Pakistan and 8 wickets against New Zealand
2022 T20 World Cup	England in the Semi-Finals	10 Wickets
2023 World Test Championship	Australia in the Finals	209 runs
2023 ODI World Cup	Australia in the Finals	6 wickets

From all the 10 ICC tournaments listed above, it can be seen that tournaments have been lost in the knockouts stage where it is a do-or-die situation and hence the Indian team has struggled there. Now, we will be listing out all the major reasons why the Indian team has lost in the ICC Knockouts.

1. Over-dependence on Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma

In the ICC Tournaments, the Indian batting has always been under scanner because of the failures that they have had. However, throughout the tournaments, the Indian team has always been dependent on their two most prolific batters, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma who have made sure that they reach the knockouts without having any issues. The middle order has always underperformed whenever these two players have given their best to the team. Virat Kohli in the 2014,2016 and 2022 T20 World carried the batting lineup while in the 2019 ODI World Cup and the 2023 ODI World Cup, Rohit Sharma proved to be the main batter.

(Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma during the ODI World Cup 2023)

In a recent statistic, it was revealed that Virat Kohli has the most runs in ICC White ball tournaments with 2936 runs to his name while Rohit Sharma is in the second position with 2538 runs for the Indian team and hence it shows that these two players have carried the batting lineup of the Indian team in the ICC events. And when these two players have failed to make an impact in the knockout matches, the Indian team has hardly passed that hurdle which shows how much the team has been dependent on these two players.

2. Musical Chairs in the middle-order

With the retirement of some greats such as Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni, the middle order of the Indian team was always in a bothering situation because no one was able to handle the pressure well. Different players were tested at different positions such as Manish Pandey, Ambati Rayudu, KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane and many more from the 4th to 6th position to see which player fits in well and who can give the Indian team a bowling option too. For the 2019 ODI World Cup, Ambati Rayudu had been prepared well since 2018 but during the selection, he was dropped and Vijay Shankar was picked over him.

(Vijay Shankar playing for the Indian team during the 2019 ODI World Cup)

Even during the 2021 T20 World Cup, the Indian team was looking to go with spinners like Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav but in the end, it was Varun Chakravarthy and Rahul Chahar who got the nod that messed up the whole scenario for the team. The middle order of the team has always been under the scanner and because of this, the Indian team has failed to lift up the trophy as the pressure comes at the top of the order which makes things unstable.

3. Injuries and Player Management

During the era of MS Dhoni, he made sure that every player focused well on fitness and that everyone was fit during the big events or the tours that were taking place. The same thing took place in the Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s era too but there were incidents when many of the top players weren’t available during some big matches or the tournaments played by the Indian team. In the 2019 ODI World Cup, Shikhar Dhawan got injured and it led to a complete downfall in the semi-final match against New Zealand.

(Shikhar Dhawan got injured during the 2019 ODI World Cup match against Australia)

Just like this, the other ICC Tournaments after that were also somehow impacted by the players being injured or recovering in the NCA Camp of the Indian team. For the 2022 T20 World Cup, Jasprit Bumrah was recovering in the NCA Camp and hence there wasn’t any proper bowling option during that World Cup which eventually ended with a 10-wicket loss against England. Moreover, the 2023 World Test Championship was again impacted by the injuries to KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant where the Indian team struggled to pick wickets and wasn’t able to score runs well.

4. Poor reading of the pitch and conditions

Coming to one of the most basic reasons why the Indian team has failed to clinch any title during the last 10 years is because of the way they have assessed the conditions during the most important matches for the team out there. During the 2017 Champions Trophy, India got the chance to select what they had to do first during the Finals of the Tournament and they decided to bowl first which came out as a poor decision as the pitch was flat and the batters had the chance to score big runs which Pakistan did and eventually lifted the cup.

(Fakhar Zaman celebrates his century against India in the Finals of the Champions Trophy)

The same thing took place in the World Test Championship Finals where the Indian team won the toss and elected to bowl first on the flat pitch of Kennington Oval in London and it backfired as Australia posted a 450+ score on the pitch and India lost the match by 209 runs. Even in the 2023 ODI World Cup Finals, the pitch was completely changed and it was brought on the slower side and hence Australia brought the pressure on the Indian team to which they succumbed and hence lost the best chance of lifting an ICC Trophy after 10 years.

5. Captaincy Pressure

The three big ICC Tournaments that India managed to win during MS Dhoni’s era were because of the tough and quick decisions that the captain was able to take during the high-profile games. The way he took the decision to promote himself up the order in the 2011 ODI World Cup Finals and the way he changed the dynamics of the game in the 2013 Champions Trophy made sure that the Indian team came out at the top. But with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, we haven’t seen them taking up such decisions during the crunch situations of the game.

(MS Dhoni took out his glove to make a run-out against Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup match)

In the 2017 Champions Trophy Finals, Virat Kohli looked completely clueless and wasn’t even planning to take the wickets of Pakistan batters while the same thing happened with Rohit Sharma during the 2022 T20 World Cup Semi-Finals against England and even lost the Finals of the 2023 ODI World Cup against Australia despite getting them at 47-3. These things have pushed India to the backseat and hence this has been the reason why the Indian team has struggled in the ICC Tournaments so far over the last 10 years.

What’s next for the Indian team?

In an interview, the former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir said that mental toughness is the reason why this Indian team has been losing now. Moreover, being the hero for the Indian team in two World Cups, he said:

“This game was literally like a quarterfinal. The problem is with the mental toughness of the side. Suddenly when you know you have got to win the game and can’t make mistakes, in bilaterals it’s different because you can make mistakes there. But in these kinds of games, I don’t think India has got that mental strength. They have got the skill and are a very dangerous side.”

“But unfortunately, we can keep talking about it that we need to stand by our team when it's not doing well but it’s been a trend and it has been happening for a very long time in most of these ICC tournaments, whether it’s the semifinals or the game today as well. When it mattered the most for someone to put his hand up, they just couldn’t.”

Now, the team will be looking to work on their strengths and weaknesses for the upcoming ICC Tournaments to make sure they come out at the top and break the 10-year drought of an ICC Trophy for the fans.