5 reasons why India have been doing well in ICC tournaments

There has been a lot of increase in the amount of cricket being played in recent years. With the 50-over World Cup and the ICC Champions trophy, the addition of the 20-over World Cup has made sure that we have an ICC tournament almost every year. We have already had 5 T20 World Cups, all won by different nations.One trend that has been seen very clearly is India’s good performance whenever an ICC tournament presents itself. They miraculously won the inaugural T20 tournament in 2007 following the fiasco in the 50-over tournament earlier the same year. They came close to repeating the feat in 2014, but were beaten by Sri Lanka in the final.They won the 2011 50-over World Cup at home, and next came the 2013 Champions Trophy in England in which they emerged champions as well. Their performance in the ongoing World Cup in Australia has also been excellent, where they have started off their campaign with four successive wins, completing a streak of 8 wins in the World Cup format, equalling the record set in 2003.The current batch may well break it this time, considering the next opponents are Ireland. The Men in Blue have lost just three games and drawn one in the last four ICC events. As far as winning trophies go, they have won two of them, and were runners-up in a third.

#1 A young side

India have grown to selecting a fairly young side over the years. Even the side that won the 2007 inaugural T20 Cup in South Africa had been tipped to be far too young and inexperienced. But they went ahead and proved themselves. It seems that a younger combination is working for the Indians.

Since then, it has been a fairly youthful selection that the selectors have gone ahead with. This time also, the only senior player in the team is Dhoni, and that too by a fair margin. This cannot have been an unconscious policy by the board.

Another thing that a young side is able to achieve is to bring intensity to the field of play. Running in between wickets has been faster, the ground fielding has improved, and the general level of activity seen on the field is more.

One cannot underestimate what a younger mindset is better at doing – taking risks, bringing in innovation into play – it is rewarding in more cases than not. The adage ‘Fortune favours the brave’ has luckily worked true for the Indian team