Former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh feels India’s top players have failed to deliver in the big matches of ICC major tournaments. The likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Cheteshwar Pujara could not deliver the goods for the team in the WTC final against Australia at the Oval, which they lost by a huge margin of 209 runs.
In fact, India last won a major ICC trophy back in 2013 when MS Dhoni led the team to glory in the Champions Trophy. Since then India has been consistently qualifying for the knockout matches but they have failed to cross the last hurdle and the same woes continued in the WTC Final.
Virat Kohli returned with scores of 14 and 49, Pujara scored 14 and 27 whereas Rohit Sharma scored 15 and 43. Ergo, the experienced trio could not get a big score despite getting off to starts.
On the other hand, Steve Smith scored a magnificent knock of 121 runs for Australia and played a key role in helping his team post 469 runs on the board. Smith added 285 runs with Travis Head, who played a match-winning knock of 163.
Harbhajan Singh said on Star Sports, “If they have not come, we have to discuss this topic in detail and see what should be the steps going forward. We always say that big players score runs in big games – if we see Steve Smith’s innings. A big player is one who wins his country the trophy on a big stage.”
Singh added India hasn’t been able to come up with a complete show in the big matches of major tournaments.
“Your records are on one side but it has been 10 years since 2013, you come close to the trophy but don’t win it. So there should be some reason behind your failure to score runs.”
The Turbanator added India must score 300-350 runs consistently to get positive results in Test matches and the players should not give themselves fake confidence by winning in favorable home conditions.
“Dada (Sourav Ganguly) said correctly that in whichever conditions you play, whether you are playing in India or Australia, if you don’t score 300-350 runs, you won’t come in the game. You cannot give yourself fake confidence by winning matches in 2.5 days on bad pitches, where the ball spins from the first day.”
Harbhajan believes India must prepare better home pitches so that they can be better prepared for overseas challenges.
“I am sorry, you have to develop the habit there, you will have to put in the effort for five days. If you come after putting in the effort there, you will find yourself better prepared for big matches. Your fast bowlers don’t bowl at all in India. Your spinners come from the first over itself.”
India will now tour West Indies in July.
