Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif on Sunday urged fans to extend their support to the Indian men’s team as they prepare for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at home later this year.
India has played their recent tournaments/big matches like ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, the ICC World Test Championship and some big bilateral series, like against Australia without some of their big stars like Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul etc. Often without these big players, India found themselves struggling, crashing out of the T20 WC semifinal after a ten-wicket loss to England and losing the WTC final to Australia.
Now they have the Asia Cup from August 30 in Pakistan/Sri Lanka and World Cup at home from October 5 to November 19 to look forward to.
“Small request for cricket fans: Don’t write off the Indian team. Show unity, don’t be divided by your individual choice of players. Rohit and Dravid have played big tournaments without stars like Bumrah. World Cup is coming home, the boys need your support,” tweeted Kaif.
Small request for cricket fans: Don’t write off Indian team. Show unity, don’t be divided by your individual choice of players. Rohit and Dravid have played big tournaments without stars like Bumrah. World Cup is coming home, the boys need your support.
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) August 6, 2023
Though the Indian cricket team has witnessed plenty of success in bilateral cricket in the 2020s, there are some notable disappointments as well, mostly in ICC tournaments.
In 2021, under former captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri, India exited from ICC T20 World Cup despite being one of the favourites. This also included a 10-wicket defeat to Pakistan in the group stage.
Then later in January 2022, under the captaincy of KL Rahul, India lost the ODI series by 3-0 to South Africa in South Africa. It also lost the Test series 2-1 under the leadership of Virat.
Later in August-September 2022, India failed to defend their Asia Cup title under the leadership of Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid and made an exit in the super four stage.
Men in Blue qualified for the semifinal of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, but were thrashed by eventual champions England by 10 wickets in November.
Then in Bangladesh in December, India lost the ODI series 2-1 to Bangladesh.
In March 2023, India lost its first ODI series at home in four years, being defeated by Australia 1-2.
India lost the ICC World Test Championship final against Australia in June.
Now in West Indies, India registered a six-wicket loss to Windies, a side which failed to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 being held in India. In the three-match ODI series India delivered disappointing performances with the bat in first two matches, losing five wickets in a chase of 115 in the first match and skittling out for 181 in the second, which WI chased. Though they won the third ODI comprehensively, they started off the T20I series with a loss, losing by just four runs in a chase of 150.
This run of disappointing performances in white-ball cricket (especially during the World Cup year) and ICC tournaments has caused disappointment among fans as well. (ANI)
