As the T20 World Cup is almost upon us and with the IPL almost about to meet its business conclusion, the Indian fans have already turned towards the imminent biennial extravaganza, the T20 World Cup. It will be a contest of thrill, excitement, amazement and most importantly the last dance of many cricketers in the shortest format of the sport.
Keeping aside the glitz, glam and literature, if we strip down the tournament to its bare minimum, we will be left with the teams trading haymakers under grim circumstances. However, if there is one team who has managed to belt out a few gilt-edged showdowns and yet the only sign of success they have managed is the solitary world cup that they won back in 2007. They are India.
Talking about India, they have really put in some decent performances until now in this prestigious tournament but when it comes to showing silverware, they have bottled things up in a pretty obnoxious manner. In this story, we will take a quick look at India’s outcomes in every edition of the tournament.
#1 2007 – Champions
In the maiden edition of the tournament, even the most ardent Indian hardliner wouldn’t have placed his wagers on India given our inexperience in the format. With stalwarts of the format that included the likes of Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa all coming in, who would have thought that Dhoni and company would have performed the impossible. India’s opening match with Scotland was washed away. Their following encounter was against their arch-rivals, Pakistan and they managed to secure a thrilling victory through bowl-out after the match was tied. Despite a decent start to the chase against New Zealand, they fell short by 10 runs. History was penned at Kingsmead with Yuvraj hammering six sixes in a row and consigning Stuart Broad and England out of the tournament. In an emphatic statement made by India, they knocked out the best team of the tournament, South Africa, who had not tasted defeat until then in the campaign. This was followed by another thrilling victory against Australia in the semi-finals. The mother of all thrillers was preserved for the grand finale as it went down to the wire and witnessed Dhoni making the impossible happen with probably the gamble of the century. India emerged as the champions of the tournament.
#2 2009 – Second round exit
Despite clearing the initial rounds conveniently after trumping over Bangladesh and Ireland, things started looking extremely shaky for India as they were thumped by West Indies, England and South Africa that led to them crashing out of the fray, getting themselves humiliated.
#3 2010 – Second round exit
Once again, the following campaign of India was marred by a familiar woeful display as they crashed out of the tournament after three consecutive defeats in the second round. They started the campaign on a thunderous note after drubbing Afghanistan and South Africa in the opening round. However, they lost their steam midway as they were humbled by Australia, West Indies and Sri Lanka, getting ousted from the fray.
#4 2012/13 – Second round exit
It seemed that after the first-time championship, India completely lost track of their World T20 campaigns as they simply failed to make the cut for the semi-finals. They drubbed Afghanistan in the first game and followed that up with a crushing victory over England in the second match. Despite winning two of the next three games, it wasn’t really good enough to drag India to the semis. They were thrashed badly by Australia in the first game of the second-round game which was followed by a victory against Pakistan and South Africa. However, the net run rate wasn’t simply close to what could have propelled them to the next round.
#2013/14 – Runners up
India once again started their campaign with a rollicking victory against Pakistan that was followed by another decent win against the West Indies, keeping their tradition of first-round supremacy intact. India thrashed Bangladesh and Australia with absolutely no difficulty at all. In the semi-final, the Indian batters toyed with the South African bowlers to qualify for the finals. However, once again things fell out in the finale as there was a sudden loss of tempo towards the end of the Indian innings.
#2015/16 – Semifinalists
India was simply outplayed in the tournament beginner as they were thrashed by New Zealand. They came back strongly against Pakistan. In a must-win game against Bangladesh, Dhoni pulled out a few tricks from his bag and handed over an incredulous defeat to Bangladesh. In the following game, India was once again in a must-win situation and Virat Kohli hammered a masterclass to deny Australia an advancement to the semis. Kohli and Dhoni once again belted out a rollicking knock in the semis but their bowlers failed to contain the eventual champions of the tournament.
