The former India opener was critical of the Virat Kohli led Indian side as they suffered another humiliating loss in the T20 World Cup 2021 and questioned their “mental toughness” as the Men in Blue tasted defeat in what was a virtual quarterfinal against New Zealand on Sunday in Dubai.
After going down heavily by 10 wickets to Pakistan a week earlier at the same venue, India gave another poor performance and account of their undoubted talent and depth, losing to NZ by 8 wickets.
India’s batting crumbled to just 110/7 in their 20 overs batting first, before the bowlers failed to provide any sort of control as the Kiwis raced to their target with more than five overs to spare.
Two successive losses have put India on the brink of elimination from the Group 2 of the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup, leading Gambhir to raise a question mark on their fortitude and temperament to come up with the goods in high-pressure games.
“This game (versus New Zealand) was literally like a quarterfinal. The problem is with the mental toughness of the side.
“Suddenly when you know you have got to win the game and can’t make mistakes, in bilateral it’s different because you can make mistakes there. But in these kinds of games, I don’t think India has got that mental strength,”
Gautam Gambhir said on ESPNcricinfo.
In a tricky group where losses to Pakistan and New Zealand have left them recovering too much ground for qualification to semi-finals, India now not just have to win all of their remaining matches versus Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia by massive margins but also hope that even though Afghanistan beat New Zealand, they don’t do so with a margin that keeps their NRR above India.
India’s situation is realistically improbable. Thus, Gambhir’s words were echoing a developing consensus among Indian fans and experts around India’s World Cup performances. While the team have come close to winning each of the ICC events in this period barring this one, their last such triumph came in 2013 when they won the Champions Trophy.
