Irfan Pathan Believes Team India Can Become World Champions If They Plan Better Going Into ICC Events

"If you look at the recent 2019 (World Cup) tournament, it was bad planning, I think the team can do better planning," Irfan said on Star Sports' show Cricket Connected.

Irfan Pathan

Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan on Sunday said the Virat Kohli-led India team needs to plan out their strategy better before heading into major ICC tournaments.The former swing bowler believes that the Indian team has all the arsenal in its kitty to become a world champion if they get their planning right ahead of flagship events. "If you look at the recent 2019 (World Cup) tournament, it was bad planning, I think the team can do better planning," Irfan said on Star Sports' show Cricket Connected. "Look, we have resources. We have players, we have fitness, we have everything to be a world champion. The only thing lacking, is that we did not have a No.4 batsmen just before the World Cup as well. We were struggling with having a proper eleven. "I think we need to make sure that we have better planning going into the ICC tournaments, going into the World Cup. If we have better planning we have all the resources to be a champion," added the 35-year old who has played 120 ODIs and 29 Tests for India. Team India which has gone from strength to strength under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, last won a multi-nation ICC tournament way back in 2013 when M.S. Dhoni captained the team to win the Champions Trophy in England. Since then, the 'Men In Blue' tagged as pre tournament favourites made it to the semi-finals of the last two editions of the World Cup but faltered in the last four stages. Similarly, they lost to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy 2017 final. One of the problems with the 'Men in Blue' in the recent ICC events has been their inability to take their momentum of the league stage into the knockouts. For instance, in the 2019 World Cup, Virat Kohli's men had topped the league stage but they faltered in the semi-final against New Zealand. Former opener Gautam Gambhir has also said the current Indian team lacks belief while playing in the knockout stages of multilateral tournaments and that's why they end up on the losing side while playing in the semi-finals and finals.