"India one of the most underachieving sports teams": Michael Vaughan
Dec 30, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 30 : Former England captain Michael Vaughan termed the Indian men's cricket team "one of the most underachieving teams in the world" for not being able to win big despite a massive amount of resources and talent.
Vaughan made this point on FOX Cricket panel during the Australia-Pakistan second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Friday.
"Here's a question for you: India, in terms of cricket, are they one of the most underachieving sports teams in the world?" Vaughan said.
"With all the talent that they have, I think they are, yeah. Well, they do not win anything. When was the last time they won something? With all the talent they have, all the skillsets... they won here (Australia) twice, magnificient but the last few World Cups, been nowhere, T20 World Cups, nowhere. You go to South Africa, who are, you know, useful in Test match cricket and to produce a performance like that... I mean, with all the talent they have, and the resources they have, I do not think they win anything," he added.
India recently lost the first Test of two-match series to South Africa within just three days by an innings and 32 runs. Since touring South Africa for the first time in 1992-93, India's dream of winning a Test series in testing conditions of African continent has not translated into reality.
India last won a major ICC tournament back in 2013, the ICC Champions Trophy. Since then, India has reached the final of the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup, the semis of the 2016 and 2022 T20 World Cup, the semifinals of the 2015 and 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup at home this year and the finals of the 2019-21 and 2021-23 ICC World Test Championship, but has failed to win any of these tournaments despite putting in incredible performances in each of these tournaments and sending teams filled with some of the biggest superstars of the sport.
The most painful of these losses was the one in final to Australia in the Cricket World Cup at home following a dominant 10-match winning streak in the tournament.
India will now take on South Africa in the second Test at Cape Town from January 3 onwards.
