Indian coach, Gary Kirstein has blamed the fatigue caused due to playing in the Indian Premier League and the minor niggles that the players carried over from the tournament for their defeat in the ICC World T20. He said that he always felt that Team India could not reach the intensity that is needed from an international team to be able to win a tournament and that was one of the biggest reasons for the debacle.
Kirstein said, “Fatigue was definitely a factor, as were many other things. I don’t want to use that as an excuse but it was a factor. We weren’t an energetic team, like we were in New Zealand where the levels of energy were really good. We didn’t get up to the same level on this tour.” The coach had already raised concerns over a possible backlash of the tiredness before the tournament had begun.
Team India has been on the roads ever since the tour to Pakistan was cancelled, having played Sri Lanka in five ODIs and a T20I, to be followed by the tour to New Zealand where they featured in five ODIs, three test matches and two T20Is. Post this, there was a small matter of an IPL, where all the players played over 35 days of cricket and immediately after the tournament ended the players needed to regroup and head to England for the ICC World T20. The performance was bound to get hit.