Two-Time World Cup-Winning Skipper's Swipe At Team India, Says 'Who's Winning Tournaments?'

Daren Sammy was of the opinion that India's wealth of talent counts for nothing if it has an empty trophy cabinet.

Updated on: 11 August 2023 3:01 am

Former West Indies skipper Daren Sammy

Despite missing a host of big stars in Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, the Men In Blue have the capacity to field a proper XI and beating any team in the world. The depth in quality is for everyone to see with the likes of Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Yashasvi Jaiswal etc and can take on any team despite missing on 'big names' in the team. However, all the talent in the world could be a nice thing to have but India are still without an ICC trophy for than a decade. Infact, India haven't won a multi-nation tournament since 2018 in Sri Lanka. The last ICC trophy they picked up was under MS Dhoni in 2013 and it was the ICC Champions Trophy. (More Cricket News)

India did come close though of winning a ICC tournament. They reached the finals of the 2014 T20 World Cup, the final of the ICC 2017 Champions Trophy and the final of two back-to-back Word Test Championships in 2021 and 2023.

Former West Indies skipper and all-rounder Daren Sammy, who has won ICC tournaments under his leadership, has sent a stark reminder to the Indian team about their empty trophy cabinet.

"When you the see the players they’ve been able to produce, Hardik Pandya, (Yashasvi) Jaiswal all the guys they produced over the years but you must also remember who’s winning the international tournaments," Sammy told journalist Vimal Kumar.

The two-time T20 World Cup winning skipper was all praise for the India's domestic structure and producing cricketers that have world-class talent.

"Like I said, Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson who didn’t play, he’s been performing. Hardik Pandya who’s young but he is seasoned in the team. Again, it speaks of the system they have that keeps producing these youngsters," Sammy added.

Daren Sammy had even praising words for southpaw Jaiswal, who scored 171 on his debut Test.

"Jaiswal has 1800 runs in first-class cricket in nine matches, nine hundreds, and then he comes to Dominica in his debut game, and he looks like he belonged at the international level. That comes from the standard of first-class cricket in India that is allowing the youngsters, when they come in, to be ready for international cricket," Sammy said.

Jaiswal made his T20I debut in the third match of the series but failed to make a mark but could get another opportunity in the fourth T20I in Florida on Saturday as India aim to make it 2-2 in the five-match series.