"Poorest in the last 4-5 years; team was playing to 15% of its ability" - Sourav Ganguly opens up on India's T20 World Cup 2021 performance

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has called India's group stage ouster from the T20 World Cup 2021 the team's 'poorest' performance in the last four to five years. The former captain said the Men in Blue got 'stuck' in their matches against Pakistan and New Zealand, didn't play with freedom, and displayed just 15 percent of their abilities.

Sourav Ganguly's comments came while talking to journalist Boria Majumdar on his show "Backstage with Boria". He was asked the reason behind India not even qualifying for the semi-finals despite performing brilliantly in all bilateral series in the lead-up to the World Cup.

Sourav Ganguly replied:

"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. [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."

Sourav Ganguly couldn't pinpoint a single reason for the blunder, saying "sometimes it happens in big tournaments".

The former skipper added:

"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."

India's T20 World Cup 2021 campaign all but ended after losses to Pakistan (10 wickets) and New Zealand (eight wickets) in the first two games. Virat Kohli lost the toss in both matches and the batting line-up failed to offset the dew disadvantage, leaving too little for the bowlers to defend with the wet ball.

Later, India's head coach at the tournament Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and pundits also mentioned the lack of any breaks for the players before the tournament as a defining factor behind India's sub-par performance.

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"Hopefully in Australia this team will play a lot better" - Sourav Ganguly

Looking ahead to the future, Sourav Ganguly said, unlike his generation, the current Indian team will have an opportunity to redeem itself in eight ICC tournaments in as many years.

Sourav Ganguly remarked that there is no doubt about the talent or ability of the players, expressing hope that 'execution' will improve in Australia. The next T20 World Cup will be played Down Under next year.

Sourav Ganguly said in this regard:

"Hopefully, they'll learn from it because see, the difference from my generation and this is that [now] there's a world title tournament every year. The next cycle will have eight tournaments in eight years. So, it will be an opportunity for them to turn things around and hopefully in Australia this team will play a lot better. The talent is without any question, the ability of players is without any question, it's just that I felt the execution in this World Cup wasn't good."

Currently, India's playing the second match of a two-Test rubber against New Zealand in Mumbai. You can follow the live scores here.