"Neither exciting like England nor brutal like Australia...": Venkatesh Prasad disappointed with India team
Jul 30, 2023
New Delhi [India], July 30 : Former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad expressed his thoughts on recent disappointing performances by the senior men's Indian team on Sunday, saying that the team has been very "ordinary" instead of being "brutal" or "exciting" like other top-teams like Australia and England.
The pacer pointed out India's disappointing performances against Bangladesh, South Africa, and Australia in bilateral series cricket and Men in Blue's heartbreaking exits in the 2021 and 2022 ICC T20 World Cups.
He expressed disappointment that mediocrity is being celebrated in Indian cricket despite money and power and thus, it is "far from how champion sides are".
"Test cricket aside, India has been very ordinary in the other two formats for quite some time now. Lost ODI series against ban, SA and Aus. Poor in the last two T20 World Cups. Neither are we an exciting team like England nor brutal like how the Aussies used to be. Cont," tweeted Venkatesh.
"Despite the money and power, we have become used to celebrating mediocrity and are far from how champion sides are. Every team plays to win and so does India but their approach and attitude is also a factor for underperformance over a period of time," he added in another sub-tweet.
Though the Indian cricket team has witnessed plenty of success in bilateral cricket in 2020s, there are some notable disappointments as well, mostly in ICC tournaments.
In 2021, under former captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri, India exited from ICC T20 World Cup despite being one of the favourites. This also included a 10-wicket defeat to Pakistan in the group stage.
Then later in January 2022, under the captaincy of KL Rahul, India lost the ODI series by 3-0 to South Africa in South Africa. It also lost the Test series 2-1 under the leadership of Virat.
India's later in August-September 2022, failed to defend their Asia Cup title under the leadership of Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid and made an exit in super four stage.
Men in Blue qualified for the semifinal of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, but were thrashed by eventual champions England by 10 wickets in November.
Then in Bangladesh in December, India lost the ODI series 2-1 to Bangladesh.
In March 2023, India lost its first ODI series at home in four years, being defeated by Australia 1-2.
India lost the ICC World Test Championship final against Australia in June.
Now in West Indies, India registered a six-wicket loss to Windies, a side which failed to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 being held in India. In the three-match ODI series so far, which still has a game to be played on August 1, India has delivered disappointing performances with the bat, losing five wickets in chase of 115 in the first match and skittling out for 181 in the second. The series is currently level at 1-1.
This run of disappointing performances in white-ball cricket (especially during the World Cup year) and ICC tournaments has caused disappointment among fans as well.
