Who are the real underachievers of cricket?
ft. Klaasen retires from Test cricket, Sharma and Kohli back in T20I fold for India
Michael Vaughan went out of his way to criticize the Indian men’s cricket team on Australia’s FOX Sports broadcast during the recently concluded Test series between Australia and Pakistan, calling India “one of the most underachieving sports teams in the world.”
He said, “They don’t win anything, when’s the last time they won something? The last few World Cups — been nowhere, T20 World Cups — nowhere… I just think with all the talent they have and the resources they have, I just don’t think they win anything.”\
If Mark Waugh, sitting next to Vaughan, had said this, there wouldn’t be much to say. Australia are the ultimate achievers in this sport and Indian fans would have to take it on the chin. Coming from Vaughan, I find it too much of a cheap shot from someone who was part of a long line of English men’s cricketers who accomplished very little. Has Vaughan won a T20 World Cup? No. An ODI World Cup? No. Held a Test mace? Never. Congrats on stopping Australia’s run of eight consecutive Ashes series victories with a 2-1 series victory in 2005, though. We’re talking about the inventors of cricket here, by the way. It would be like Gary Neville or Michael Owen calling the Germany men’s football team the biggest underachievers in sports for their recent FIFA World Cup and Euro struggles.
Even looking beyond what the team accomplished during Vaughan’s time, England had never won an ODI World Cup until 2019 — which also was on a technicality because of a boundary count rather than actually winning the final. With that and all of India’s struggles at ICC events over the past decade, India has still won more ODI World Cups. Who’s the underachiever?
England’s men have one Test mace to their name compared to India’s five. India has also played in both WTC Finals to date while England have played zero despite all the Baz Ball hype. In terms of recent accomplishments, from Oct. 2016 - May 2020, India had a 43-month run as the No. 1 Test side, the second-longest in history (behind Australia’s 74-month run) and a run people seem to dismiss now because of the WTC’s existence. England’s longest and only run as No. 1 since the introduction of rankings in 2003 is 12 months from Aug. 2011 - July 2012. In fact, in total, India has been the No. 1 Test side for 72 months since 2003 (trailing Australia’s 107), which is 60 more than England’s tally. You don’t have to search far into the memory banks to remember that up until 2021, the rankings were the main measure in Test cricket.
I find it very convenient that England has finally accomplished quite a bit in the last five years and suddenly Vaughan feels like he can get on his soap box and take pot shots on an Australian show knowing there was no Indian on air to respond.
Has India underachieved over the past decade? No question. Keeping mind of what has been achieved also shows the high standard they’ve set for themselves where it’s trophies or bust in a much shorter time relative to England. England are the real specialists in underachievement. They invented football, too, right?
SLIP CATCHING
Heinrich Klaasen has retired from Test cricket after Kyle Verreynne was selected ahead of him for the series against India. He is presumably also shifting his focus exclusively to white-ball cricket, where he has become a superstar.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have both been picked for India’s T20I series against Afghanistan, suggesting that they will both feature in the T20 World Cup six months from now. I wrote about what their selection/non-selection would say about India in my previous post.
Grant Bradburn has resigned as head coach of the Pakistan men’s team to take up the head coaching position with English county Glamorgan.