It pains many that Team India has gone from one nadir to another as it lost to Pakistan and New Zealand in succession in T20 World Cup 2021; soo many Indian fans are feeling dejected, depressed, decimated. Though, i’m unmoved !

For somebody who has followed the Indian team long enough from the early 80’s down to the current knows that the team’s fortunes swing like a sinusoidal wave. If it’s on a downward slide, reaching the nadir should be cause for celebration since it’s expected to climb up thereafter (possibly applies for all teams, nonetheless). 

We had an exactly similar situation in 1997 when Indian team got beaten badly in Sharjah and soon enough Sachin Tendulkar quit his captaincy in favour of Dada Saurav Ganguly. All individually great players may not have the luck to be big match winners. Sachin was not a big match winner as a captain and he realized it soon enough and passed on the mantle to Saurav who got India into winning ways. After Saurav, again Wall Dravid was not a big match-winning captain. But then MSD came and changed everything. 

So what separates the Sachins and Dravids from Sauravs and MSD’s when it comes to captaincy ? It’s luck. Sheer luck !

The former weren’t magnets for luck but the latter were amply lucky. Luck isn’t just good times when you win by fluke. It’s an X factor of preparation meets opportunity where the ratio of conversion of opportunities to wins is high !

Let’s face it : some have it. Some don’t ! It’s harsh truth so nothing to feel bad about it. 

An MSD can gamble bereft of logic and still play the winning move like bowling the last over in 2007 T20 World Cup using a rookie Joginder Sharma !

On the other hand, we have VK who bowls with the seasoned Bhuvaneswar and Sami and still gets belted on all corners of the park. 

Let’s digress to explain this “luck” thing using an anecdote from the Mahabharata.

Kunti tells Draupadī during her pregnancy :

भाग्यवन्तं प्रसूयेथा, मा शूरं, मा च पण्डितम्। 

शूराश्च कृतविद्याश्च, वने सीदन्ति पाण्डवाः॥        

Give birth to lucky children, neither brave nor knowledgeable. 

Pāṇḍavas who are brave as well as knowledgeable are rotting in the forests.

So what’s wrong with the Indian Cricket Team ?

Nothing.

It’s a transition time. If we have reached the nadir, we can only go up from here.

Lucky horse hopefully shall be backed henceforth. One which wins big matches and trophies. Period.

Here’s a Hurrah to Achhe Din for Indian Cricket Team. Cheers !

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.