Indian cricket is on a high since MS Dhoni took over as a skipper in 2008. The team has reached certain finals or semi finals in the ICC tournament giving a sigh of joy to millions of fans. Though its been a tough time for Indian cricket team in last outings at any ICC event, with a drought in the trophy column. The middle order fails to fire when the team needs them and this way Indian cricket is slightly going the proteas way of choking at crucial stages in world cricket. Lets discuss it in brief :
1 :] Lost to Sri Lanka in world t20 Finals 2014 (Bangladesh)
India were enjoying their dream run in 5th edition of world T20 in Bangladesh. Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma fired in top order and Virat Kohli was turning out to be devastating for any bowling line up. Kohli also turned out to be the highest run getter in the tournament and played a crucial knock in india’s Semi final triumph against the Proteas, where they were chasing a mammoth target against a very impressive South African bowling line up. Top order scoring maximum runs and not giving chance to middle order was a big concern for India in the finals against Sri Lanka and this came true when India managed to score only 130 runs in the finals, where top order failed to fire and loan warrior was Virat Kohli. As a result, bowlers could not defend a small target and lost to Sri Lanka by 6 wickets.
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2 :] Lost to Australia in Cricket world cup semi finals 2015 (Australia)
India had a poor run of form before the world cup loosing to Australia in the odi series 4-1. But they started off the world cup convincly and finished at top of the table, giving a ray of hope to Indian fans. India thrashed Bangladesh by 109 runs in quarter finals to play against Australia in the semi finals. In this tournament, top order fired yet again giving minimal chances to middle order to join the party and as a result India lost to Australia by 95 runs. Middle order again failed to fire where it mattered the most. Virat Kohli could just manage 1 run, who was the biggest hope for team India when chasing a target of 329.
3 :] Lost to West Indies in World T20 semi finals 2016(India)
India scored a massive 196 runs on the red pitch of Wankhede stadium in Mumbai and were ready to book yet another world T20 finals ticket. This time it was the turn of bowlers who were not able to defend a massive score. Considering all the pressure of a knockout game on the Windies, who have to chase down a huge total. The Indian bowling picked wicket on no balls which will never fetch anyone a breakthrough anytime in the world cricket. Windies went on to win the 6th edition of World T20 by defeating Engand in a last over thriller.
4 :] Lost to Pakistan in finals of Champions trophy 2017 (England)
India were going good and were the real favorites to defend their title yet again in 2017. Cricket journalists and pundits believed that there was no chance of Pakistan to defeat India in the finals but yet again top order scoring most runs and not giving any exposure to middle order was a concern for India in the finals and sadly the story was repeated as a commendable looking Indian bowling line up leaked runs and a target of 339 runs was set for the Indian batters, unfortunately the top order failed to fire who were the reason why India were in the finals and middle order could not be amongst the runs, handing over a famous 180 runs win to arch rivals Pakistan.
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Leaving the World T20 clash against West Indies.
- Indian top order fails miserably when it matters the most.
- Virat Kohli is a great chaser, but somehow could not manage to take India home when the going gets tough.
- Middle order fails miserably when the team need them to fire.
- Dominating in the group stages but failing miserably in the knockout stages is a big concern.
Indian cricket is producing some of the greatest performance in ICC event from past few times. But the nack of finishing it off like a perfect football goal, will still be a big concern for India’s dominant run in world cricket.
