You need to play big tournaments as a team- Harbhajan Singh on India’s ICC title drought

Its been a decade since India has lifted any ICC title at the top level and former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh reckons the lack of collective effort in the big knockout matches has led to the team’s undoing in the major events.

India last won a major ICC trophy when MS Dhoni led the team to the Champions Trophy glory in 2013. Since then India has been consistently making it to the knockout stages but they have been floundering in the crucial stages.

India recently lost the World Test Championship final against Australia by a huge margin 209 runs at the Oval as the batters failed to deliver in both innings.

Harbhajan Singh said while talking to News24 Sports, “I don’t know, it’s very difficult for me to say what we had and they don’t. I believe players who play for the country, in whichever era they might be playing, their only motive is to play well and win for the nation.”

India lost the 2015 ODI World Cup semifinal against Australia and then they were beaten by New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semifinal.

The former Indian spinner added: “We played till the semi-finals in 2015 and 2019, the ICC trophy didn’t come. Maybe the ability to punch back after absorbing the pressure has probably been seen in only one or two players. You need to play big tournaments as a team.”

The Turbanator highlighted that the other players need to support big players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya and team has to move forward with the same motive.

“You have Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya – they are big players but along with these three players, the rest of the eight to ten players and the team management, everyone has to walk together with the same motive.”

“The small-small things like saving a single or a brilliant run-out, all those are also huge things. So when the team plays as a unit, they can produce bigger results and that is what probably our team did better. Maybe they are much better than our team talent-wise.”

India will begin their 2023 ODI World Cup campaign against Australia at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on October 8.