‘Poorest in the last 4-5 years’ - Sourav Ganguly reckons India played just 15 percent of their capacity in T20 World Cup 2021

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has termed India’s early exit from the T20 World Cup 2021 as the side’s ‘poorest’ performance in the last 4-5 years. The Men in Blue, who entered the tournament as favourites, endured a horrendous campaign and got knocked out of the league stage. It was the first instance of India not making to the knock-out stage of an ICC event since their ouster in the 2012 T20 World Cup.

With the Virat Kohli-led side not living up to the expectations, the team faced criticism from different corners. Ganguly didn’t either hesitate in calling the side’s performance poor. The former Indian captain’s comments came after he was asked the why India couldnt even qualifying for the semi-finals despite performing brilliantly in all bilateral series in the lead-up to the World Cup.

Little disappointed with the way India played this World Cup: Sourav Ganguly

“To be honest, 2017 [and] 2019, I think India was good. 2017 Champions Trophy we lost the final to Pakistan at the Oval, I was a commentator then. Then the 2019 World Cup in England, we were exceptional right throughout, beat everyone and lost to New Zealand in the semi-final – one bad day and the entire good work for two months was just wiped away,” he said in a conversation with journalist Boria Majumdar on his show “Backstage with Boria.”

“[I am] a little disappointed with the way we played this World Cup. I think this has been the poorest of all what I have seen in the last four-five years,” added the former Indian captain. While Ganguly didn’t pinpoint where India went wrong, he reckoned sometimes teams are not able to click in mega events. He also said the team was playing just 15 percent to its capacity.

“I don’t know what’s the reason but I just felt they did not play with enough freedom this World Cup. Sometimes it happens in big tournaments, you just get stuck and when I saw them playing against Pakistan and New Zealand – I just felt this was the team which was playing to 15% of its ability. And sometimes you can’t just a finger on it that this is the reason why it happened,” the 49-year-old added.