Is UAE Pitch A Curse For Indian Men And Women's Team In ICC Events?

India Men and Women Team- (Source: @FemaleCricket And Johns/X.com)India Men and Women Team- (Source: @FemaleCricket And Johns/X.com)

On Sunday, October 13, India women squandered a great opportunity to keep a foot in the semi-finals after they suffered a nine-run defeat against Australia at Sharjah Stadium in UAE. The match was for India to win, as they were in the driver's seat for most of the game. 

Nonetheless, India have now lost two of their group-stage games and rely on arch-rivals Pakistan to qualify for the semi-finals. It has been an underwhelming performance by the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side, as they have received criticism.

Sanjay Manjrekar Puts Blame On UAE Pitches Behind Poor Show

In the latest events, former India batter turned analyst Sanjay Manjrekar blamed the surface rather than the players and remarked that the lack of pace in the strip has restricted openers Shafali Varma and Smriti Mandhana from playing their natural game. 

Manjrekar's comment sparked a new discussion as fans even compared Men's team performance in UAE in the recent past and found that they too have failed to perform as expected in UAE. Thus, let's analyse how has the Indian side performed in UAE in the recent past. Is the pitch that has made a difference or are the players at fault?

India Men's Poor Show At 2021 T20 World Cup

During the 2021 T20 World Cup, the Men in Blue crashed out of the group stage and suffered defeats against New Zealand and Pakistan. It was their first-ever defeat against Men in Green in a T20 World Cup match. 

Talking about the openers, Rohit Sharma was India's 2nd leading run-getter with 174 runs in five matches. However, he failed to play his natural game in the first two matches against New Zealand and Pakistan. The Hitman scored just 15 runs in two matches. Even against New Zealand, Rohit scored run-a-ball 14 runs, which is in contrast to his nature as the pitch was slower in nature. 

Talking about KL Rahul, who was Rohit's partner, scored 194 runs in five matches and was India's leading run-getter that edition. Similar to Rohit, in the first two matches, KL scored 3 (8) and 18 (16) in the first two matches. 

Conclusion 

There is a merit in the fact that the pitch has not suited the players and they were restricted from playing their natural game, but it is also true that the opposition got into players' head be it Men's or Women and the pressure to perform in big games resulted in failure. 

Otherwise the same players have scored runs against a weaker side and faltered against high profile teams.