Dubai, Nov 8: Ravi Shastri at the pre match interaction on Monday before the match against Namibia revealed that Team India were ‘mentally and physically drained’ and as a result Virat Kohli and Co. didn’t even try to win.
India started their campaign with back to back losses against Pakistan and New Zealand before coming back and winning against Afghanistan and Scotland in the following matches. The Men in Blue needed Rashid Khan and co. to win their last match against New Zealand to give the upper hand to the Indians, but the Mohammad Nabi-led side succumbed to an eight-wicket loss and the Kiwis joined Pakistan from Group 2 into the business round of the competition.
When Ian Bishop asked on ‘Star Sports’ about the takeaways from the poor campaign during which India lost to Pakistan and New Zealand, Shastri said: “All I can think first of is rest.”
“I am mentally drained but I expect that at my age but these guys are physically and mentally drained. Six months in a bubble…What we would have ideally liked was a bigger gap between the IPL and the T20 World Cup…(because) when the big games come, when pressure hits you, you are not that switched on as you should be.”
Shastri said that he doesn’t want to cite excuses but the team was not in best shape to even try and win games here.
“It’s not an excuse. We take defeat and we are not scared of losing. In trying to win, you will lose a game but here we didn’t try to win because that X-factor was missing.”
(With Inputs From PTI)