Don't call team India 'chokers', they don't lose often at ICC events: Salman Butt
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Butt, in his YouTube video, straightaway defended the Indian team and said that they dont have a "long history" of not winning an ICC event.
Former Pakistani captain Salman Butt has weighed in on the much-debated topic in the cricketing arena these days regarding the Indian cricket team. Ever since the Virat Kohli-led team lost the ICC World Test Championship Final (WTC) against New Zealand besides the absence of major ICC trophy since eight years, a gourp of fans have dubbed the Men In Blue as the "new chokers", a tag that has been associated with South Africa team as they have failed to reach finals of major ICC tournaments since their re-admission to cricket in 1992.
Although, India have reputation of giving exemplary performances at the ICC tournaments, but some of the critics have been raising concerns over performances in past few years. Butt, in his YouTube video, straightaway defended the Indian team and said that they dont have a "long history" of not winning an ICC event.
The 36-year-old mentioned the trophies India won when MS Dhoni was leading the team. He said, "Under previous captain MS Dhoni, India won the Champions Trophy (2013), the World T20 (2007), and the 50-over World Cup (2011). Recently, India played the World Test Championship (WTC) final and the 2019 World Cup semi-final. They have been almost there among the world’s Top 2 teams. So, the frequency of India’s losses is not that much to term them as chokers." India last won an ICC event under the leadership of MS Dhoni in 2013. Since then, they have entered the last four of every ICC tournament and also played the finals on three occasions, but failed to win.
“Look at the number of semi-finals New Zealand have played in the World Cup. They have played two finals as well (2015 and 2019). Nobody called them chokers. South Africa were termed chokers because they frequently lost big matches. They went down in a lot of finals and crunch games. That isn’t the case with India as yet,” he added.
Meanwhile, team India is all set to play the upcoming T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to take place from October 17 to November 14 this year in the UAE. India and Pakistan are slated to play in the group stage as they are in the same pool. Recently, former Pakistan's fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar predicted the winner. He said that the India and pakistan will play the final clash also and not just that, Pakistan will end up defeating India.
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