Former Pakistani wicketkeeper batter Rashif Latif analysed Indian cricket team’s "internal" problems while talking on his YouTube channel.
India are on a 10-year ICC trophy drought as their last trophy came in 2013 with Mahendra Singh Dhoni leading the team to the ICC Champions Trophy triumph.
Despite having a load of talent and the Indian Premier League (IPL), where Indian talent gets the chance to prove themselves, it remains a mystery that how they have not won a trophy for so many years.
Latif believes that India’s problems have more to do with internal matters than with the players on the field. He talked about Virat Kohli’s removal as the captain saying that the 34-year-old had a direction but he was sacked.
"Virat Kohli had a direction and he wanted to win, but he was sacked. The team couldn't perform due to internal issues. They couldn't perform in ICC tournaments because, maybe, the captain didn't get the desired players. Or maybe he got, but they weren't used," Latif said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Kohli left the T20 and Test captaincy on his own but he was sacked from ODI captaincy after which Rohit Sharma took charge of the team.
"Their team is still pretty good, they will get a no.4. The problem begins when the top-3 gets dismissed quickly. If the top-3 plays out the 25-30 overs, they will win easily.
“Their issue is the top-3 isn't performing how it used to. They could've brought back Shikhar Dhawan, you had made him captain less than a year ago during a tour. You had players, you threw them here and there," he added
The Blues came close to winning an ICC trophy twice under Kohli’s captaincy. They lost the Champions Trophy 2017 final against Pakistan and then lost the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021 final against New Zealand.
Although Sharma replaced Kohli, he could not do much as well as under his captaincy, the Blues could only go as far as the semi-finals in the T20 World Cup 2022 and lost the WTC 2023 final against Australia.
- Rashid Latif