Rashid Latif, former Pakistan wicketkeeper, believes that Team India’s lack of success in ICC events over the last decade can be attributed to internal conflicts among their star players. Despite being considered strong contenders to win the 2019 World Cup, the Men in Blue were eliminated in the semifinals. The 2021 T20 World Cup witnessed a poor performance, leading to Virat Kohli stepping down as captain.
Rohit Sharma took over, but the team’s struggles continued with a failure to win the 2022 T20 World Cup. Latif shared his insights on why India may have underperformed in recent ICC tournaments through a video on his YouTube channel.
“Virat Kohli had a direction and he wanted to win, but he was sacked. The team couldn’t perform due to internal issues. They couldn’t perform in ICC tournaments because, maybe, the captain didn’t get the desired players. Or maybe he got, but they weren’t used.”
“Virat Kohli had a direction and he wanted to win, but he was sacked” – Rashid Latif
Rashid Latif suggests that India could have improved their team by reintroducing the seasoned Shikhar Dhawan into the lineup. Despite injuries to middle-order players Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul, Latif isn’t overly concerned.
He thinks that India should have focused on reinforcing their top three positions for the Asia Cup and World Cup by including Dhawan. Regarding this matter, Latif commented:
“Their team is still pretty good, they will get a no.4. The problem begins when the top-3 gets dismissed quickly. If the top-3 plays out the 25-30 overs, they will win easily. Their issue is the top-3 isn’t performing how it used to. They could’ve brought back Shikhar Dhawan, you had made him captain less than a year ago during a tour. You had players, you threw them here and there.”
The Indian cricket team is anxiously awaiting updates on the fitness of Rahul and Iyer, leading to a postponement in the announcement of the Asia Cup squad.
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