India lack a Plan B in ICC tournaments: Nasser Hussain

Former England captain Nasser Hussain feels that the Indian team has lacked an alternative plan in major ICC tournaments primarily due to a superb top-order that rarely fails.

This pattern can be observed in the ICC World T20 in 2014, the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and in the 2019 World Cup in England where an uncommon top-order failure caused a complete collapse of the team resulting in a loss in the playoffs.

"I would say selection is where India have gone wrong over the ICC tournaments, adapting to conditions a little bit. So it's not just about having one game plan," Nasser Hussain said on 'Cricket Connected' which is a show on Star Sports.

The former England captain feels that it has got a lot to do with the outstanding performance of skipper Virat Kohli and his vice captain Rohit Sharma in most of the white-ball games which effectively means that the middle-order has no idea of how to deal with tricky situations.

“Adapting to conditions, if it’s nibbling around (ball swinging) and if you are in a World Cup semi-final against New Zealand and it’s doing a little bit, where is your middle-order if you are 20 for 2 and (Virat) Kohli and (Rohit) Sharma are out?” Hussain questioned.

Nasser Hussain further added that this failure of the middle-order can be attributed to the success of the top-order because they have never had to rescue the teams from sticky situations.

"It could almost be a fault of Indian cricket that they are too good at the top of the order. When it's good and flat, okay Kohli hundred, Sharma hundred, hundreds at the top and lads in the middle order don't get a hit," he commented.

Nasser Hussain then reiterated the importance of having a Plan B when Plan A fails to get them across the line. India have no answers once they quickly lose three wickets in early overs, opined Hussain.

".....and suddenly you are 20 for 3 because you have come up against (Mitchell) Starc, (Josh) Hazlewood and suddenly all the guys haven't had a hit and we are four down and how we are going to get out of it now. So it's about having a Plan B that will get them across the line, not just having a Plan A."

Nasser Hussain labels Virat Kohli as 'tinker man':

While Hussain loves that Kohli is his "own man", very different from 'Ice Man' Mahendra Singh Dhoni, there are areas where he would like the Indian captain to improve.

"So, he's his own man, he's got better at certain things or still certain areas I'd like to see Kohli improve on. I call him the 'tinker man'.

Nasser Hussain offered an explanation as to why he calls Kohli by that name.

"Every over, you have to change the field, he is running up changing things, he tinkers a little bit too much. Selection - I know people say what's that got to do with Kohli, but you got to have a selection plan. I think India did a lot of things well, I'm not sure selection is one of them," Hussain said.

Nasser Hussain also spoke about India not having a permanent number four in the World Cup, which hurt the team's chances.