Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad went on a rampage mode against captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Rahul Dravid, and the entire Team India for their “underperformances” in the past two years at the international level.
This show of “mediocrity” from Team India seems to have hit a nadir as they lost the second ODI to a West Indies that had already failed to qualify for the World Cup 2023 tournament and were also without the two key players in Jason Holder and Nicholas Pooran.
India’s loss to West Indies in the 2nd ODI in Barbados – which also ended their streak of 9 consecutive ODI wins over West Indies, a streak that had started in December 2019 – was difficult to digest for the fans, though India were without a number of their first-choice players, including the rested duo of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, both of whom are likely to return in the third ODI.
This led to Venkatesh Prasad writing a couple of strongly-worded tweets.
Venkatesh Prasad listed out the failings of the team in white-ball cricket in the past two years, most notably the failure to reach finals of the last two T20 World Cups, and ODI series losses to Bangladesh, Australia, and South Africa.
“Test cricket aside, India has been very ordinary in the other two formats for quite sometime now. Lost ODI series against BAN, SA and AUS. Poor in the last two T20 World Cups. Neither are we an exciting team like England nor brutal like how the Aussies used to be,” Venkatesh Prasad said in a tweet.
Prasad is unhappy with the “approach” and “attitude” of the Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma-led unit.
“Despite the money and power, we have become used to celebrating mediocrity and are far from how champion sides are. Every team plays to win and so does India but their approach and attitude is also a factor for underperformance over a period of time,” he added.
Despite the money and power, we have become used to celebrating mediocrity and are far from how champion sides are. Every team plays to win and so does India but their approach and attitude is also a factor for underperformance over a period of time.
— Venkatesh Prasad (@venkateshprasad) July 30, 2023
Head coach Rahul Dravid, though, was not much worried about the loss in the second ODI, he said, as India are experimenting.
“I think we will always look at the bigger picture. To be honest, at this stage in the cycle with the Asia Cup and World Cup coming up, and with the injuries we have, we have to look at the bigger picture. We can’t worry about every single game, every single series. If we do that, it will be a mistake,” Dravid said.