'Don't Look At The Captain' : Aakash Chopra Explains Why India Have Not Been Successful In ICC Events Since 2013

Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has refused to blame the captain for India’s unsuccessful run in ICC tournaments of late. India’s campaign in the ICC World Test Championship could not be successful either as despite being the best performing team in the cycle, New Zealand toppled them in the final. Aakash Chopra believes that India’s best players need to be responsible enough in the knockout games and the captain is not the only one to blame.

The Indian team has not won any ICC tournament since 2013 when they lifted the Champions Trophy by beating hosts England narrowly. Nevertheless, since then, the men in blue have found it difficult to get past either the knockout stage or fail in the finals. New Zealand has proved to be the bogey team for them as India, under Virat Kohli, lost their last two events to them.

Aakash Chopra underlined India played six ICC events since 2013 – three under MS Dhoni’s leadership and the next three under Virat Kohli. Hence, the 43-year old inferred that it has not been about captaincy and feels that the entire team needs to perform to its potential.

“We have played six ICC events since 2013. Three were in Dhoni’s captaincy. After that, three have been under captain Kohli. So is it about captaincy; it doesn’t tell me that. Don’t look at the captain; just look inwards that the entire team has to deliver to its potential,” Chopra told in his Youtube channel.

Aakash Chopra opines that India’s best players lack of runs in knockouts acts against them:

Aakash Chopra reminded that Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, and Virat Kohli – all of whom are giants in white-ball cricket, have not done exceedingly well in the knockouts. Thus, the cricketer-turned-commentator calls for all the big players to come to the party, which he believes has not happened.

“Rohit, Kohli, Dhoni are your main players in batting. If you see their performances – Rohit’s overall knockout average is 24.9. His career Test average is 46, ODI is 49 and T20I is 32. So his average in the knockouts is much lower than his career average,”

The same story is for Kohli. His overall average in knockouts after two good innings is 38.3 while his career average is above 50 in all three formats. In ODI cricket, it is nearly 60, so the average is going down by at least 20 points. Dhoni – his knockout average is also 34. His career average in every format is much better than that.

This is the main story. When it comes to knockout performances, you want your big players to fire. It’s as simple as that. Big players need to come to the party, but they haven’t done that often enough,” he added.

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