Sourav Ganguly spoke about the Indian cricket team’s early exit from the T20 World Cup 2021 for the first time since the tournament ended. He dubbed India’s performance at the marquee event as the term’s worst in the last five years. During a show, Ganguly said that he was left disappointed with the team’s outing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“To be honest, 2017 [and] 2019, I think India was good. 2017 Champions Trophy we lost the final to Pakistan at the Oval, I was a commentator then. Then the 2019 World Cup in England, we were exceptional right throughout, beat everyone and lost to New Zealand in the semi-final – one bad day and the entire good work for two months was just wiped away. [I am] a little disappointed with the way we played this World Cup. I think this has been the poorest of all what I have seen in the last four-five years,” he said.

Before the start of the tournament, India were considered favourites to lift the elusive T20 title. However, they were condemned to a 10-wicket loss in their campaign opener by Pakistan and then followed it up with a five-wicket loss against New Zealand. Even though India won three in a row after the first two defeats, it was not enough for Virat Kohli and Co to make the semis cut. This happened for the first time in 9 years.

While Ganguly didn’t mention any primary reason behind the early ouster, he said that India only played 15% of their ability.

“I don’t know what’s the reason but I just felt they did not play with enough freedom this World Cup. Sometimes it happens in big tournaments, you just get stuck and when I saw them playing against Pakistan and New Zealand – I just felt this was the team which was playing to 15% of its ability. And sometimes you can’t just a finger on it that this is the reason why it happened,” he added.

In the next 8 years, there are 8 ICC tournaments and Ganguly hopes that India will bounce back strongly.