Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Nov 10: India, led by Rohit Sharma, will compete against England for a spot in the Twenty20 World Cup championship match, looking to end the competition at the same packed Melbourne Cricket Ground where it all started.
The Rohit Sharma-led team may be alarmed by the ICC knockouts’ past results, but they can be encouraged by their recent T20I series success against England. Remarkably, India has prevailed in 12 of the 22 T20 games played against the 50-over World Cup champion England, including the last four. England has only won one trophy despite being regarded as the thought leader in limited-overs cricket, whereas India has failed to win a championship despite making it to the semifinals in all six limited-overs global tournaments.
Furthermore, India defeated Bangladesh by a narrow margin of five runs at Adelaide Oval, although England has yet to play a game there during this tournament. Additionally, England still harbours grudges from their 2015 50-over elimination by Bangladesh at Adelaide Oval, which served as their penultimate ICC World Cup encounter. India may just need Mark Wood’s injury scare, Suryakumar Yadav’s incredible T20I record against England, and Virat Kohli’s unwavering affection for Adelaide to end the ICC knockout curse.
The men’s team of India hasn’t won an ICC trophy in nine years, and it’s been five years since they’ve triumphed in an ICC knockout game. The record of times they’ve failed in ICC tournaments is extensive. Indian teams have had difficulty winning any ICC titles or trophies since 2013, when MS Dhoni captained India to victory in the ICC Champions Trophy.
Each one of them has been nothing short of a heartbreak, including the final of the 2014 T20 World Cup, the semi-finals of the 2015 Men’s World Cup, the final of the 2016 Under-19 World Cup, the semi-final of the 2016 T20 World Cup, the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy, the final of the 2020 Under-19 World Cup, and the final of the 2021 World Test Championships.
India has suffered in every ICC event since 2013 because of this pattern of being clinical and unchallenged in the group stages before giving in to the pressure of the moment at some point in the elimination rounds. Since the 2014 World T20, India has participated in eight knockout matches in ICC competitions, with three victories and five defeats.
