WTC Final: The Issues That Contributed To Team India's Failure

There are no signs that the enigma of India's poor showing in ICC competitions would ever be solved. The men from the subcontinent lost in the title-deciding match to Australia for the second time in two consecutive seasons, falling at the last hurdle. The New Zealand team had stopped India from winning the Test mace two years prior. The core of the narrative of India's demise sees the squad repeating same mistakes, which has even left the critics speechless in the face of the team's repeated failures on the world stage.

The Strange Absence of R Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin perhaps studies his opponents better than any other man in the world. The off-spinner has improved his comebacks by learning from each error he has made throughout his career. Ashwin, a true legend in the Test format, reportedly began getting ready for the World Test Championship final while the Indian Premier League was still going on. Yet when the time came to face his mistakes, he discovered that he was warming the bench for India's most significant Test match in the previous two years.

The management of the Indian team had its justifications, but Ashwin's withdrawal against a team with five left-handers was beyond perplexing. Even the legendary Sachin Tendulkar had trouble accepting Ashwin's exclusion from India's starting Eleven.

IPL Tiredness

The Indian Premier League is heavily criticised every time India does poorly in an ICC competition. Although if it's undeniable that the cricket world is rapidly shifting to a franchise-based ecosystem, the fact that Indian players were forced to compete in the WTC final soon after the T20 league's end may have had an impact.

Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and a number of other players who were committed to representing their franchises during the IPL 2023 season's final months struggled against an Australian team that was more motivated.

The likes of Steve Smith, Travis Head, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, and a few others from Australia, in contrast, didn't even play in the 16th IPL season.

In the future, Indian players would need to prioritise, as the WTC finals would likely take place in June, not too long after the IPL seasons ended.

incorrect top-order

Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Rohit Sharma all punched below their weight in this game, scoring a combined total of 193 runs. India only managed to score a pride-saving total of 296 runs because to Ajinkya Rahane's 89 and Shardul Thakur's 51 in the first innings. Without them, no batter could reach fifty runs.

The likes of Rohit, Pujara, Kohli, and Rahane made strong starts in the second innings but were unable to turn them into significant scores. The averages of Indian batsmen have dropped significantly in recent years, as former India captain Sourav Ganguly correctly noted after the game. Some players, including Kohli, will undoubtedly face criticism for their shot choices.

Even the biggest names failed to produce at occasions like the World Trade Center final.