Taking Too Much Pressure And Overthinking: Deep Dasgupta On India's Failure To Win An ICC Event Since 2013

Former Indian wicketkeeper-turned commentator Deep Dasgupta believes that it is important to analyze Team India’s defeats in knockout games since the 2013 Champions Trophy rather than branding them as ‘chokers’.

India will lock horns with New Zealand in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship final in Southampton next month and the Virat Kohli-led unit will be desperate to break their knockout jinx and clinch their maiden ICC title since their 2013 Champions Trophy triumph.

Since winning the 2013 Champions Trophy, Team India has faltered in either semi-finals or finals of an ICC event.

They lost the 2014 T20 WC final and 2017 Champions Trophy final to Sri Lanka and Pakistan respectively besides losing three semi-finals to Australia (2015 WC), West Indies (2016 T20 Wc) and New Zealand in the 2019 WC.

Dasgupta reckoned that the major reason behind India bottling knockout games in the last seven years can be attributed to them overthinking and letting the occasion get to them.

He also recounted the various reasons that led to India’s defeat in knockout games in the aforementioned ICC events.

“Think about the choker remark the fact is that India has not won a knockout game in the ICC events since 2013. Again, there is no particular reason for that apart from that fact that maybe taking too much pressure and overthinking just because it’s a big game in an ICC tournament,” Deep Dasgupta said while responding to a fan’s question as quoted by India Today.

“Also, think of the New Zealand game, I think India should have won that. 2017, the Champions Trophy game (final) against Pakistan, that no-ball, let’s not get into that. We have spoken a lot about that no-ball. Then, in the West Indies Wankhede game (2016 T20 World Cup), the toss played a crucial role. 180 (192) was not a bad score, but the dew factor and all that played a role,” he added.

“There is a reason behind every game, we need to look into them individually. I wouldn’t call India chokers.” Deep Dasgupta added.

 

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s contribution key for India in the WTC final: Deep Dasgupta

Speaking about the upcoming ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand, Deep Dasgupta reckoned that it will be crucial for Team India that the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma come up with match-defining performances.

The struggles of Rohit and Virat in the 2017 CT final and the 2019 WC semi-final were one of the major reasons behind India failing to cross the final hurdle.

While their recent form in ICC knockout games is stacked against them, Dasgupta reckoned that the duo wouldn’t be thinking too much about the numbers ahead of the marquee clash against New Zealand.

”You can’t deny the numbers. Ideally, speaking you want your best batsmen and best bowlers to perform in knockout games in the ICC. There’s no obvious reason why they aren’t. I also think it is something that they shouldn’t be thinking about,” said Dasgupta.

”At times, when these numbers come up, you tend to put pressure on yourself by trying to prove the numbers wrong. I hope they are not thinking about it. I hope they are aware of this. I am not too sure whether they are thinking about it, I haven’t spoken to them about it. But yes, the fact remains they haven’t scored a lot of runs in these knockout games,” he added.

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