Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin hit again at former England skipper Michael Vaughan’s comment that India are ‘underachievers’ and acknowledged that the group has been among the best travelling sides in Test cricket.
Recently, Vaughan termed the Indian males’s cricket group “one of the most underachieving teams in the world” for not having the ability to win large regardless of an enormous quantity of assets and expertise. Vaughan made this level on the FOX Cricket panel throughout the Australia-Pakistan second Test on the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
“Here’s a question for you: India, in terms of cricket, are they one of the most underachieving sports teams in the world?” Vaughan mentioned. (WTC Rankings: Australia Steal Number 1 Spot From India With Win In Pakistan Series, Full List Here – In Pics)
“With all the talent that they have, I think they are, yeah. Well, they do not win anything. When was the last time they won something? With all the talent they have, all the skillsets… they won here (Australia) twice, magnificent but the last few World Cups, been nowhere, T20 World Cups, nowhere. You go to South Africa, who are, you know, useful in Test match cricket and to produce a performance like that… I mean, with all the talent they have, and the resources they have, I do not think they win anything,” he added.
To this, Ashwin hit again, saying on his YouTube channel that although India has didn’t seize ICC trophies, its Test group is likely one of the greatest travelling sides.
“Michael Vaughan made a statement after the first Test that India is an underachieving team. Yes, we haven’t won ICC trophies for years. We call ourselves the powerhouses of the game. But the Test team has been one of the best travelling teams in the vicinity. We have seen many great results,” he mentioned.
“After he said that, so many experts from our own country started questioning if India is an underachieving team. Frankly, it made me laugh,” he added.
Ashwin additionally mentioned that Indian cricket critics nitpick an excessive amount of, inflicting them to miss numerous group’s success.
“So, both cricket and Test cricket are differentiated by fine margins. In a country like India, where we talk cricket in every nook and cranny and consider the sport a religion, I feel we criticise and nitpick too much and get into unnecessary details. I think these are blinding us,” Ashwin concluded.
Over the years, India has seen some large success in Test cricket. They beat Australia at their residence territory twice in a row, in 2018-19 and later 2020-21, with the second being extraordinarily particular because the group battled the absence of key gamers like Virat Kohli, accidents and inexperience. It additionally managed to attract the Test sequence 2-2 throughout the tour of England, having a 2-1 lead below Virat’s captaincy earlier than COVID-19 postponed the ultimate Test. Besides this, Team India additionally recorded large Test wins in South Africa, most notably in Cape Town inside simply two days.
India has additionally been invincible at residence, recording wins over Sri Lanka, West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa, England, Australia, Bangladesh and many others at residence in Tests. This has helped India attain two ICC World Test Championship finals. (‘Rohit Sharma Will Be Captain Of Team India For T20 World Cup 2024:’ Former India Cricketer Aakash Chopra)
But, India final gained a significant ICC match again in 2013, the ICC Champions Trophy. Since then, India has reached the ultimate of the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup, the semis of the 2016 and 2022 T20 World Cup, the semifinals of the 2015 and 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, the ultimate of the ICC Cricket World Cup at residence this yr and the finals of the 2019-21 and 2021-23 ICC World Test Championship, however has didn’t win any of those tournaments regardless of placing in unbelievable performances in every of those tournaments and sending groups crammed with a few of the greatest superstars of the game.
The most painful of those losses was the one within the last to Australia within the Cricket World Cup at residence, following a dominant 10-match successful streak within the match.
