Despite being one of the most authoritative teams on paper, and assuredly the favourites to win any competition they play, India’s faltering at the most crucial stage of the tournament has become a sort of regularity in recent years.
Whether it’s the ICC World Cup 2015, or ICC Champions Trophy 2017, or ICC World Cup 2019, India has choked exactly at the business end of the tournament, bringing down the whole nation from the height of enthusiasm to the depth of despair.
The famous Australian coach, Tom Moody, in his recent chat with cricket-expert Harsha Bhogle, has explained how India “sabotaged their hopes” of winning the 2019 World Cup.
The IPL-winning coach asserted that India failed to make the best use of the talent at their disposal. The availability of too many players obscured the thinking and philosophy of team management.
“One of the huge challenges India has to face, whether they like it or not, is the expectation of their talent. There is no question India has got more talent by a long stretch than any country playing our game. But sometimes that can be a burden,” Moody told Cricbuzz.
“Not just the expectation but when you have got too many players to choose from, it can cloud your thinking and your philosophy on how you feel you need to play to win a particular tournament.”
Moody further stated how India created a mess in their batting order by making some questionable selections and changes in batting position just before the commencement of the World Cup last year.
“The best example was the campaign in England (ICC World Cup 2019). When it seemed that India, twelve months out, we’re ready to play that tournament. But in the next twelve months in the actual lead up to the tournament, did their very best to sabotage their hopes of winning the tournament.”
“By changing batting orders, by changing personnel within the batting order, creating uncertainty among the whole playing group. When you come into major tournaments that’s when you crystalise people’s thinking and thoughts and not be influenced by the white noise. What the media might be talking about because you know exactly what path you are on. What exactly you need to be doing. You just need to remain consistent with that because players also sense the uncertainty when those things are happening,” the 54-year- old former Australian cricketer concluded.
