'They don't have a long history of not winning an ICC event' - Salman Butt feels it's too early to term India 'chokers'

The ICC T20 World Cup is just three months away, but the excitement is slowly and surely building up among fans, experts, and critics. Among the top teams, India has been exceptional in the past few ICC events, playing consistently and entering the top four regularly. While the efforts of Men in Blue are lauded by one and all, it is their performance in the knockouts of the global events is what is a growing concern.

The latest loss came on June 23, when India failed to win the ICC World Test Championship Final (WTC) against New Zealand. This was the third defeat for the Virat Kohli-led team, the other two coming in the 2017 Championship Trophy and Cricket World Cup 2019. Before that too, under MS Dhoni’s leadership, India lost the final of 2014 T20 World Cup and the semifinals of 2015 ODI World Cup.

While the fans have started to dub India as the ‘new chokers’, Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt believes it is too early to call India with such names and has backed the team to perform well. The term ‘chokers’ is used for South Africa since they have consistently failed to progress through to the finals of an ICC event since their re-admission to cricket in 1992.

Salman Butt defends Indian team

Butt reckons India cannot be termed as chokers since they have won the ICC title under the leadership of Dhoni three times. The 36-year-old also pointed to the example of New Zealand who too failed to win an ICC event, before they finally won the WTC in 2021.

“India doesn’t have a long history of not winning an ICC event. 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,” Salman Butt said in his YouTube video.

“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.