"Indian players worry about external pressure" Ricky Ponting dissects India's ICC trophy drought

Australia great Ricky Ponting feels India don’t peak at the right time in ICC tournaments.

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting opined that the Indian cricket team players need to find ways to prevent the external pressures from surrounding their minds when they enter the business end of an ICC tournament. The two-time World Cup-winning skipper brought it down to a “mindset thing” when asked about India’s continuous failures at ICC tournaments.

Despite having the deepest talent pool and the backing of the richest cricket board in the world, India have not been able to win a single ICC trophy at the senior men’s level over the past decade. Their last ICC triumph came in the Champions Trophy 2013.

Since then, while the Men In Blue have done brilliantly in the group stages and league rounds of ICC events, they have failed to eventually clinch a single trophy. They have lost multiple finals and semi-finals of ICC tournaments since 2014 across the three formats.

Ponting, who is currently in New York for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, feels India have been lacking in dealing with pressure that has hindered their progress.

Speaking with PTI, Ponting said, “You’ve got to try and keep a clear mind where you can focus on the task at hand rather than thinking too far ahead or worrying about any sort of external pressures.”

“There’s no doubting the talent (in India squad), but we also shouldn’t forget that the World Cups are not easy to win. There are all the best players in the world together at one time in different contrasting conditions.

“So look there’s definitely a mindset thing to it. How you deal with pressure, how you cope with pressure, how you think your way through certain situations is the difference between winning and losing a T20 game.”

Your best players need to play well at the right time: Ricky Ponting

Ponting, who won three ODI World Cups, two of them as Australia’s captain, said that for a team to win a World Cup, the players have to peak at the right now, which is in the knockouts.

“One thing you know about World Cups, you have to have your best players playing well at the right time. Australian teams are playing their best cricket right at the back half of the tournament and peaking again at the right time in a major event,” he added.

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