Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif feels that the internal issues in the team could be a factor for their poor performance in the recent ICC events. The Men in Blue won their last ICC trophy under the leadership of legendary MS Dhoni in the 2013 Champions Trophy.
Since then, India has advanced to the ODI World Cup semifinals in 2015, the T20 World Cup final in 2016, the ODI World Cup final in 2019, and the 2021 WTC Final but could not go one step further in the big tournaments as the team fell short of the title, despite doing well in the league stages of the tournament and also they were few question marks regarding the team selection in the ICC events.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Rashid Latif said that the Indian team’s performance in the ICC events could have been due to internal issues and reckons that the captain could not get the desired players going into the World Cup and feels that they have a good unit going into the Asia Cup 2023 and ODI World Cup 2023.
“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 it, but they weren’t used.
“Now, there are two big events — Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and the World Cup at home. Their team is still pretty good, they will get a no.4,” Rashid Latif said.
There was a talk that things were not good between high-profile Indian players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. According to various reports, they were some misunderstanding between two Indian stalwarts and it came to light after the 2019 World Cup, which head coach Ravi Shastri later resolved for the betterment of the team.
You Had Players, You Threw Them Here And There – Rashid Latif
Rashid Latif feels that India’s trouble begins once the top order gets dismissed in a quick time and said that India usually wins the game once their batter provides a better start to the innings and also questioned Shikhar Dhawan’s place in the team, as he is not part of India’s plan for the World Cup after captaining the team for few games in 2022.
“The problem begins when the top-3 get dismissed quickly. If the top-3 play 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,” Rashid Latif added.
The Men in Blue have crumbled under pressure in the crunch moments of the game, as they lost the Champions Trophy final in 2017, Semifinals in 2019, and the World Test Championship final in 2021 and 2023 as they failed to capitalize on the opportunity to win the ICC events in recent times.