Former cricketer Aakash Chopra has expressed that India did not play like to their potential in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. The Virat Kohli-led team failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament.
India began the campaign on a disappointing note, losing two consecutive matches to Pakistan and New Zealand. They made a comeback, winning against Afghanistan, Scotland, and Namibia. However, it wasn’t enough as India was knocked out from the Super 12 stages of the tournament.
.@imVkohli signs off as the #TeamIndia T20I captain with a win. š š#T20WorldCup #INDvNAM pic.twitter.com/0YBK69rFhn
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 8, 2021
In a video shared on Aakash Chopra’s YouTube Channel, the former cricketer, pointed out that India got back to their own, only after the damage was done. He said:
“Our World Cup was over when New Zealand defeated Afghanistan. No no, hang on, our World Cup had finished when we couldn’t win even one of the matches against Pakistan and New Zealand. The expectation was for India to play like India but it didn’t happen.”
“So, the way we have defeated Namibia or made Scotland lick dust or won against Afghanistan by a big margin, these things do not have much significance. So, I will not be able to say they have come late but have come well. I will say too little, too late because it was all over by the time we found our groove,”Ā Aakash added.
“A campaign to forget” – Aakash Chopra
While reflecting on India’s campaign, Aakash Chopra asserted that the openers along with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja performed well. He said:
“A campaign to forget. Ashwin and Jadeja shone and openers also did amazingly well against Namibia. It looks like everything is fine but if that was the case, we should have progressed.”
The former cricketer further expressed, that the wins against Afghanistan, Namibia, and Scotland matter little, as India lost the important encounters initially in the tournament. Aakash said,
“In this pool, there were only three good teams – Pakistan, India, and New Zealand. It hurts slightly if our name is not there in even two of them. It was not even a bittersweet campaign. When you couldn’t even stand in the first two encounters, whatever happened after that was like slight stat padding. The stats do not matter when there was nothing left in the tournament.”
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