T20 World Cup: New Zealand's win over Afghanistan has marked Team India exit from the World Cup. Team India was set to lose out on the opportunity of proceeding in the World Cup right after they lost the first two matches against Pakistan and New Zealand. India's hopes of staying in the tournament then depended on the performance of other teams in Group 2, which were shattered when Afghanistan lost to BlackCaps yesterday. As a result, former Indian players and cricket pundits have now started to raise questions on Team India's abysmal performance.
Commenting on India's underwhelming performance in World Cup, 1983 World Cup winning skipper Kapil Dev said,"When players prioritize IPL over playing for the country, what can we do? Players should take pride in playing for the nation."
He added, "I feel that first in line should be the country's team and then franchises. I'm not saying do not play cricket there (IPL), but the responsibility is now on the BCCI to plan its cricket better."
Kapil Dev also said, "If we were expecting to reach the semi-finals based on performance of other teams in the group, then this is wrong. If you want to win the World Cup, you have to do it on your own. It would be better if we stopped depending on other teams."
He further said, "The selectors will have to decide the future of major players. The BCCI has to think whether the time has come to give a chance to the youngsters who have played well in the IPL."