Team India once again lost the chance to win the ICC trophy. Australia defeated India by 6 wickets in the World Cup final played at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. This is the 9th time since 2013 that the Indian team has lost the chance to win the title by losing the semi-final or final match.
Why does the Indian team, which played brilliantly throughout the tournament, suddenly choke in important matches? The answer to this question comes from sports psychology. What happened with the Indian team in the final is called Fear of Failure by psychologists who analyze sports and players. That means fear of defeat.
Fear of failure is a state in which people do not take any decision in which there is a possibility of defeat. They neither try new things nor want to take risks. There are four main reasons behind this.
Australia won the toss and chose to bowl first. At that time Rohit said that if he had won the toss, he would have batted first. The team batting later won three of the four matches of this World Cup on this ground. Rohit's state of mind was defensive and he did not want to chase in the final. That too when they had decided to chase against Pakistan on this very ground and the team won.
Before this match, the entire Indian team was playing brilliantly, but our top-4 batsmen could not handle the pressure on big occasions. Gill was out after playing a bad shot on Starc's ball. At the same time, Iyer was out while touching the ball outside the off stump.
Rohit Sharma was getting out while playing aggressive shots in this World Cup. This time also it happened. Then you can say that this was normal. No. This was not normal. In the over in which Rohit was out, 10 runs had already been scored. Despite this, he got out after playing a bad shot against a part-time bowler.
After 3 wickets fell for 81 runs, KL Rahul came out to bat. He supported Virat Kohli but batted too slowly. He also did not attack against part-time spinners like Glenn Maxwell and Travis Head. Due to this Australia dominated the match. Rahul scored 66 runs on 107 balls at a strike rate of 61.68.
After being all out for 240 runs, it was the turn of the Indian bowlers. The team also lost 3 Australian wickets for 47 runs, but from here the team adopted defensive thinking. Travis Head was not set and Marnus Labuschagne had just arrived at the crease. Rohit made Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav bowl in front of him, but neither of them did attacking bowling.
No slip was used on Jadeja's bowling, whereas no slip was used on Kuldeep's bowling in front of Labuschagne. In the middle overs, Kuldeep's bowling also hit the outer edge of Labuschagne's bat, but slip was not present at that time. A similar opportunity also came on Jadeja's bowling in front of Head.
Rohit also bowled Mohammad Siraj for the first time in the 17th over. Siraj bowled with the new ball in the entire 10 matches, but due to this change in the final, the team did not get the benefit of bowling with his new ball. Also, Shami's 5 overs ended in the first 10 overs and the team could not get the benefit of the first change bowler.
According to sports psychologist Karanbir Singh and mental coach Prakash Rao, there is pressure in big matches. If players take the match as a challenge then the possibility of positive results is more and if they take it as a threat then it has a negative impact on the game. It was clear from the attitude of the Indian players that they took this match as a threat.
Former Indian captain MS Dhoni has also said many times that in any match, his focus is more on action than the result. That means they focus on what they can do and not what the result will be. Indian players could not implement Dhoni's philosophy in this match.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his study 'The Art of Failure' that choking occurs due to fear of failure. Panic and choking are complete opposites. Thinking too little leads to panic, while thinking too much leads to choking. In choking, the player's instinct disappears.
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