'Become used to celebrating mediocrity': Venkatesh Prasad slams Indian cricket team after ODI loss to West Indies

Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad criticised the Indian cricket team for their below-par performance in all cricket formats apart from the test matches. On Saturday, India lost the second ODI against West Indies, with the decision to rest skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli backfiring badly. Even though the West Indies team was out of form, the Men in Blue could not compete with them and lost the match by six wickets.

It was a below-the-mark performance from India, as they were bundled out for just 181 runs. India's preparation for the ODI World Cup began with the current series. However, due to injury woes, the team management is still striving to identify the best lineup for one of the most crucial cricket tournaments in the world. 

Venkatesh Prasad is quite active on social media and keeps sharing his views on the Indian team’s performance; he moved to Twitter to slam the Indian team’s performance in white-ball formats in recent times. While criticising their performance, Prasad compared the Indian cricket team with the current England side and the dominant Australia of the 2000s

Prasad tweeted, “Test cricket aside, India has been very ordinary in the other two formats for quite sometime now. Lost odi series against ban, SA and Aus. Poor in the last two T20 World Cups. Neither are we an exciting team like England nor brutal like how the Aussies used to be (sic).”

The famous cricketer further criticised the Indian cricket team's attitude and approach while referring to the team as 'mediocre'.

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“Despite the money and power, we have become used to celebrating mediocrity and are far from how champion sides are. Every team plays to win and so does India but their approach and attitude is also a factor for underperformance over a period of time,” he added in his tweet.

Twitter users also came forward and shared their opinion on Prasad’s comment. One user wrote, “India & Indians are happy praising the likes of Virat & Rohit who haven't delivered more than 3-4 times in the last few years. With this team forget about winning any major tournaments. Kohli, Rohit, Rahul cannot win a World Cup for us. They are out of their prime form.”

“1000% agree that's why 90s kids prefer to watch old matched on youtube etc then current team.. 2000 time it was best team India had..  @SGanguly99 as a captain played against all the best teams won agains them but mainly i will say it was legendary era.. Every team had legends in their team #SriLanka #Pakistan #australia #england #SouthAfrica #windiz #nz even #zimbabwe then was solid team.. All top record holders.. Means tough cricket toughest bowlers and best batsmans.. Best captains.. After that now also #IndianCricket struggling agains weakest windiz team.. @BCCI should only play @IPL.. They spoiled cricket.. And keeping many players in team just for team sponsorship.. #Ashes2023 what fighting spirit.. Tough cricket we like to watch..” added another user.

In the second ODI, the Indian bowlers were unable to hold on to comparably easy target. In order to maintain their 182-run chase, Shai Hope (63 not out; 80 balls) and Keacy Carty (48 not out; 65b) combined for 91 runs (118b) for the fourth wicket. West Indies surpassed the goal with 80 extra balls.

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