The Indian team hasn’t won an ICC trophy in eight years. They last won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy under the leadership of MS Dhoni, but since then haven’t found much success in winning ICC events.
India performed brilliantly throughout the inaugural season of the ICC World Test Championship but lost to New Zealand in the finals. This was India’s third defeat in the finals of ICC events since 2013. Virat Kohli and his team have come under a lot of scrutinies for their performances in the high-pressure finals.
Former Pakistan opening batsman, Salman Butt has backed Team India despite losses. In a Youtube video on his channel, he said that it’s too early to term the Indian team as chokers.
“India doesn’t have a long history of not winning an ICC event. Under previous captain MS Dhoni, India won the Champions Trophy (2013), the World T20 (2007), and the 50-over World Cup (2011). Recently, India played the World Test Championship (WTC) final and the 2019 World Cup semi-final. They have been almost there among the world’s Top 2 teams. So, the frequency of India’s losses is not that much to term them as chokers,” he said.
6 ICC tournaments in a row where India have been eliminated in the semi-final or final:
WT20 2014
World Cup 2015
WT20 2016
Champions Trophy 2017
World Cup 2019
WTC 2021#Cricket— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) June 23, 2021
Salman Butt also pointed out that New Zealand too has failed in ICC events, but then went on to win the inaugural season of ICC World Test Championship beating India. He said:
“Look at the number of semi-finals New Zealand have played in the World Cup. They have played two finals as well (2015 and 2019). Nobody called them chokers. South Africa were termed chokers because they frequently lost big matches. They went down in a lot of finals and crunch games. That isn’t the case with India as yet.”
The Indian team will be eager to change their fortunes in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup.