With India hosting the 2023 edition of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup which is going to commence on 5th October, fans are more than excited to witness the big game. At this moment, all the teams and even players are open to criticism from their counterpart teams and opponent teammates. Recently, Team India faced a hue of criticism from former New Zealand cricketer and coach, Simon Doull.Â
“Will have to struggle”, says Doull
The former New Zealand cricketer claimed that at the right time, India always struggles to play fearless cricket during the major tournaments. He also put light on the match when India was defeated by New Zealand in the semi-finals of 2019 World Cup with ex-skipper and batsman Virat Kohli admitting that 45 minutes of bad cricket led them to lose the match. He opined that their approach to the game is not ‘stats-driven’ and as a result, it hurts the team on the big stage.
The 54-year old ex cricketer stated that “Fearless cricket is their issue. They don’t play fearless cricket enough. They play statistics driven cricket and they are too worried about their stats too often. And to me that is the one area I am concerned about their batting side. They have got all the talent and some of the best players if not the best players in the world.”
“Time will tell” theory by Sreesanth
However, the 2011 World Cup winner did not take Simon’s “fearless cricket” comment kindly and asserted the Men in Black Caps just got lucky in the 2019 World Cup finals. He also cited that New Zealand will have to learn a lot from captain Rohit Sharma and Co. in the upcoming WC.
“I just want to tell Simon Doull that Indians are going to have a blast against New Zealand. New Zealand are going to learn a lot against India. Yes, there have been certain matches where they have done well against us, especially in ICC events. But those times have gone now. If any of these cricketers get to know what you said, and if Virat is made aware of it, it will be a lot of fun to watch the match”, the former pacer added.
India and New Zealand are ready to face each other on the big stage on 22nd October at the HPCA Stadium in the scenic city of Dharamshala for the 2023 World Cup.Â
Stay updated with all the cricketing action, follow Cricadium on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
